Development aid transforms the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of physical environment, landscape, and architectural space. This work examines the advantages and disadvantages of these spatial effects from four development aid projects
in Sub-Saharan Africa. The projects range from small ones like upgrades of informal
settlements in an urban discrict of Accra, Ghana to huge ones like the construction of
the Merowe Dam in Sudan that influenced 6,364km2 of space and landscape.

Development Aid
Development aid1 is defined by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as “[g]
rants or loans to [...] developing countries [...] and to
multilateral agencies which are (a) undertaken by the
official sector; (b) with promotion of economic development and welfare as the main objective; (c) at concessional financial terms[.] (OECD 2013)” where the goal
is to encourage lasting transformations. In contrast,
humanitarian aid intervenes in a situation which mostly
emerged by disasters, to alleviate issues immediately
and for a shorter period of time.

a global standard for developing countries. It measures
development by means of technical and economical characteristics such as the GDP (gross domestic
product), life expectancy and education. This viewpoint
leads to a bias in the evaluation of the development
level of a country: Ziai (ibid.) criticizes the narrowness
of this criteria and argues that a more comprehensive
approach incorporating a broader set of criteria must
be taken. He claims that criteria such as equality of
rights, distribution of income, suicide rates, racism,
sustainability practices, or the consumption of resources would alter our perception of development so drasti-

According to Aram Ziai (2010:23-29) development
aid is an Eurocentric construct, which assumes that
there are developed and developing nation-states. The
latter are often described with disparage terms such as
underdeveloped and structurally weak. It is important
to note that within this viewpoint the West sees itself as

cally that nations considered to be highly developed
– such as the United States2 – would be evaluated
as being developing. Therefore, development aid is a
Western concept, that assists the „developing“ world to
move towards Western standards. Due to its limitation
towards solely technical solutions, development aid

2

is also depoliticized. It ignores the fundamental problems confronting developing countries such as power
asymmetry and distribution conflicts (ibid.). Many case
studies show, that a solely technical development of
countries, can lead to major disadvantages of the affected people. This will be shown in detail at section V,
the Merowe Dam development in Sudan.

to facilitate the gathering of evidence, the timeframe of
research is limited to events between 2000 and 2013.
The projects were all initiated and terminated within
this period.

1. The official term used by the OCED is Official Development Assistance (OECD 2013).
2. An average US citizen produces five times more CO2 emissions
than an average person (McCandless 2009:26-27).

Applied Methodology
In order to be able to make a statement in the given
time, the projects were selected by the following:
Firstly, it is a development aid project taking place in
Sub-Saharan Africa. Secondly, the examined project
must have direct spatial effects on the place. Thirdly,
spatial effects must be locatable. Evidence is provided by satellite images, plans, diagrams, statistics,
photographs, and field reports. Fourthly, four projects
are investigated to keep the results very specific. This
restricts the analysis from making any general statements on the spatial effects of development aid. In
order to broaden the analysis, distinctive projects,
that provide a wide spectrum of characteristics were
selected. This spectrum includes duration, spatial effects, amount of funding, transformation of settlement
areas and or landscape, development structure, and
the kind of development aid. The duration describes
the time period when the project took place (project
start until project end). In these examples the duration
is between three and nine years. The spatial effects
determines how much space has been affected by
the project. These effects range from the exchange of
individual buildings in a particular district to transforming the habitat of sixty thousand people. Development
structure discusses the management of the aid project
and kind relates to what the project aims to develop
(i.e. knowledge, infrastructure, ecology). More details
can be found in the following section. Fifthly, in order
3

GHANA

(1) Accra
Settlement Upgrade

0 250 500

GDP

Population

rural
% of country export

100%

0.32 Bn

1.81 Bn

3.44 Bn

32.2 Bn

Cocoa beans, whole

urban

Ghana

GDP

3 most valuable
export goods

Billion USD

Billion USD

Million People

Country Snapshot Overview

Population

24.4 MM

ATLANTIC OCEAN

Cocoa paste not defatted

Gold
Cement

Petroleum oils, refined

(3) Mangrove
Afforestation

Gold

0.32 Bn

0.21 Bn
0.20 Bn

12.4 MM

12.9 Bn
GDP

100%
Population

Senegal

SENEGAL

100%

Metals, Stones
Consumables
Oil

1000

3000km

Project Overview and Comparison of
Countries
The map (fig. 2) shows where the selected projects
are located geographically and compares the countries in which the projects took place. Facts such as

countries. A common feature is their economy’s focus
on the trade of raw materials. This is rooted in the repression of industrialization by the governing western

the total and urban population size, GDP, and the
most important exporting goods are illustrated with
the infographics adjacent to each country on the map.
This com­pares the development aid projects in a
roughly defined socio-economic framework providing
obser­vations on a wide variety of characteristics of the

nations during colonialism (Conchiglia 2009:8).
In project one an Informal Settlement in a district
of Accra has been selectively upgraded. A comparison between Ghana and Tanzania demonstrates that
the population living in urban settlements is double
in Ghana. In project two the extension of the port in

4

Sudan

100%

Tanzania

Sheep
Other oil seeds

7.35 Bn
Petroleum oils, crude

100%

0.39 Bn
0.22 Bn
Precious metal ores and concentrates
Tobacco, raw

Gold

GDP

(2) Daressalaam
Resettlement

Population

TANZANIA

0.97 Bn

22.9 Bn

44.8 MM

INDIAN OCEAN

0.18 Bn
0.16 Bn

67.00 Bn
33.6 MM
Population

SUDAN

GDP

(4) Merowe Dam

2
Fig. 2: Project location and country comparison.

Daressalaam leads to the demolition of Informal Settlements leaving about 36,000 inhabitants homeless.
In this example a new settlement was built at the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s

people and reshapes 500km2 of landscape.
At first glance, no relationship is found between the
ratio of people living in urban areas compared to those

periphery for a part of these people. Project three is
about the afforestation of a desolate mangrove forests.
In Sudan, the fourth project, a development aid project
supports the construction of a huge dam in Merowe giving a new impetus to the electrification of the country
and therefore transforms the habitat of at least 60,000

living in rural areas and the GDP. Sudan has the highest GDP, but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s population is concentrated in rural
areas. Ghana on the other hand, which is the most
rural country in our selection, has the second highest
GDP. The GDP of Senegal is the smallest, however,
when compared with the population size, Tanzania is
5

the poorest country out of the four.
As explained in the applied methodology part, projects were selected in order to meet a wide range of
characteristics: The upgrade in Accra with a duration
lasting three years is the shortest project. The longest
project lasting nine years is the dam construction
project in Sudan. The size of the areas directly affected
by the development aid also show the greatest difference. Some projects only transform settlement structures, others only the landscape, and others change
both to different degrees. Types of development aid
are distinguished between infrastructure, ecology and
know­ledge. In order to be able to formulate these
categories, we have to know the aims of the respective projects. It is possible that a project relates to
more than just one category. The term infrastructure is
applied more widely than normal: It includes in addition to classical infrastructure, such as streets and
energy supply, also buildings and industrial plants. The
afforestation pro­ject in Senegal is categorized as ecology and knowledge. Although it is clearly an ecological
project which aims to change the environment, rele­
vant knowledge must be passed on to the population
to create a sustainable mangrove forest. The development aid structure describes the structure of power
between the planning or capital giving top and the
affected bottom. If the top exercises absolute power on
the objectives and procedures throughout the whole
project, it is called a top-down approach. The top defines what and how it is done. If the top consults with
the bottom and as a result the aid receivers can have
an influence on what and how something is done, then
it is a consensual approach. If the bottom has a greater
influence than the top, it is a bottom-up approach.
Such an approach can be observed in the resettlement
project in Daressalaam where the affected population
decides together with the NGOs on the design of the
new settlement and also helps in constructing it. The
population consequently has a great influence on the
spatial effect. Finally, there is the financial participation. Here we differentiate between NGOs, companies,
affected people, and affected countries nationally and
6

internationally. Apart from the third project enough
sources were found in order to depict the financial
structure completely. In project three estimations were
made based on knowing that the project had been
funded by companies and on indications given by observers of the project. This allowed me to approximate
expenses.2 Figure 3 puts all analysed characteristics
of the projects in comparison to each other. The single
cells of the funding row is not in relation to the other
projects and therefore a comparison of them could be
misleading. Because of that, the following figures (4-7)
depict the financing structure based on absolute values
in order to be able to compare them and emphasize
their different financial dimensions.
3. In total 150MM trees (Sall 2012:4) were planted in an area of
108km2 (Oceanium-Dakar 2013, UNFCCC-CDM 2012:16). The
workers received per hectare EUR 7.5 and per bag of seed EUR
1.5 (Sall 2012:3). Based on the size of the bag and the seeds,
we assume that one bag holds around 500 seeds. 150MM trees
would add up to EUR 450,000. The afforestation has been
compensated with EUR 81,000. The project ran from 2006 until
2011. Supposing a remaining budget of EUR 10,000 per month,
taking into account the entire time period, we would come to an
amount of EUR 600,000. Based on our estimation the project
costed EUR 1.132MM in total.

Fig. 3: The Project Grid puts various characteristics of the four
projects into comparison to gain a quick overview of the
similarities and differences. Mind, that the funding cells are
not put into relation to the other projects, but to their own
funding shares. See fig. 4-7 for absolute values.
Fig. 4: The Informal Settlement upgrade in Accra, Ghana (chapter
II) has a significant share of fundings contributed by the
UN-HABITAT SUF.
Fig. 5: The funding of the relocation project in Daressalaam,
Tanzania (chapter III) is a tight cooperation between loans
provided by the NGO and direct contributions done by the
affected people.
Fig. 6: Senegal‘s afforestation project (chapter IV) was funded entirely by companies, such as the Danone Fund for Nature.
Fig. 7: The Merowe Dam construction (chapter V) was the most
expensive development aid project in the selection. A major
share of its funding was done by foreign countries, primary
by China.

Overview
In Amui Djor, an informal district of Accra, informal
buildings have been substituted by multi-storey and
multi-functional buildings between 2009 and 2012 by
TAMSUF1. In the analysis we will discuss successes,
deficiencies and risks of the intervention.
1. TAMSUF is a financial institution situated in Ghana and partner
of UN-HABITAT SUF (UN-HABITAT 2009a:11).

Informal Settlement
When Informal Settlements are discussed, they are
usually referred to as slums, shanty towns or favelas.
These terms are not adequate for the following reasons: The term is culturally determined. This means,
12

it is only appropriate in portuguese-speaking cultures
- such as for example Brazil - to use the term Favelas.
In English-speaking cultures one normally describes
them as slums. In addition, these terms are judgmental. This implies, that whenever we refer to an Informal
Settlement as slum or favela, we would denigrate the
whole settlement including their inhabitants: Favela is
the Portuguese and slum the Irish word for a wretched
quarter. As we will see in the second project in this
analysis, the general term â&#x20AC;&#x153;Informal Settlementâ&#x20AC;? is
more appropriate. It describes settlement structures,
which are built outside the formal order or have become illegal through legal amendments.
Informal settlements have been defined by UNHABITAT (2007:1) as an urban form of dwelling, which
can be described by five criteria. Most of the people
living in Informal Settlements in the world live in Sub-

Saharan Africa.2 82% of these people meet one or two
of the following criteria (ibid.):3
•
•
•
•
•

no consistent building structure, with a provisional
character
there are more than three people living in one
room
there is no access to enough affordable clean
drinking water
there is no access to adequate sanitation, like
private or public toilets shared by a reasonable
number of users
there is no security of tenure, which prevents
forced eviction of the inhabitants

The Emergence of Informal Settlements
Now that we have drawn a line between Informal
Settlements and other living forms, we can ask ourselves, how Africa has come to this enormously high
proportion of Informal Settlements. As we are already
in Ghana, we will use Ghana and in particular Accra as
example for displaying the factors: The degradation of
the living situation of the rural population leads to an
internal migration.4 The rural population hence moves
in areas, where there are more sufficient means to
earn a living (Danso-Wiredu 2013:5, Ploner 2010:4748). Most of the times, these are urban areas such as
cities and suburbs. This migration results in an erratic
population increase in urban regions. As the state
normally doesn’t take care of creating living areas for
internal migrants, Informal Settlements grow denser
and spread (Danso-Wiredu 2013:5-6). This can also
be only temporarily in the case where migrants sustain their bond with their native place and the migration destination only serves for income and education
(Ploner 2010:47-48).
As many other development countries Ghana
introduced upon insistency by IMF the Structural
Adjustment Programme (SAP), which lead to drastic
cutbacks in the public sector, administrative services
and a devaluation of the Ghanian Cedi. Through the
structural change resulting from SAP, sources for higher income became rarer and credit awards for farmers
more difficult. The rural population, confronted by the
reduction of the labour market due to the shortcuts in
the agriculture sector, was impelled to seek for other

income opportunities in urban regions. Therefore a
rural depopulation was set in motion. This forced parts
of the population into the Informal Economy,5 where
income is irregular and low. Especially the internal
migrants are greatly affected by the structural change.
The demand for low-price living areas has increased in
the urban regions, without the building sector adapting
to this need (Danso-Wiredu 2013:1, 7-8). In order to
save money, the tenants use their living rooms also as
working space. This multiple usage was disapproved
by the building sectors and house owners (UN-HABITAT 2011:5). In order to cover the requirements for
flexible and low-price living area, the population has
put up provisional and non-authorized flats on unbuilt
areas. This resulted in an increase of Informal Settlements in the urban regions of Ghana (ibid.).
When Informal Settlements develop, it plays an
important role how the area can be owned by the
population. The property system varies from country
to country, which we will see in the following studies. In Ghana there are four possibilities how to own
land: The stool or skin land, the family land, the state
land and the private land. The stool or skin land is a
land, which is owned by a community.6 80% of the
property in Accra is owned by customary law7 and is
stool land of indigenous tribes (UN-HABITAT 2009:29).
The social structures of these tribes are traditional
and hierarchical: although the land is owned by the
whole tribe, it is managed by the heads. They decide
on who owns land, who is allowed to build and where
something is built. As the land is bound to the tribe, it
is usually not sold, which hinders the development of
projects taking place on stool land. An appreciation of
the land in urban regions however exceptionally leads
to the vending of land through paying “Drink Money”.
Drink Money is in its original meaning capital used for
the cultural act of property transfer by the tribe. In the
meantime drink money has attained the level of an
official market value of the properties. The family land
defines the land where a family owns and manages
the property, as does the state with the state land, and
private land is owned by a single person (UN-HABITAT
2011: 30, 77). As 80% of the properties in Ghana is
stool land under customary law (ibid.: 31), there is no
clear property situation in Informal Settlements. The
inhabitants lease the properties from the tribe, but can
lose these informal rights at all times. This would transfer immobile goods into the ownership of the tribe. In
Tanzania on the other hand, the whole land is owned
by the public. The president holds the administrative
and decision power (Ndezi 2009a:80). As we will see
in chapter III of our analysis, this condition leads to the
fact, that the president can enforce expropriation for
13

people in 2001 and 5.8MM people
in 2010 lived in InSUDAN
formal Settlements in Ghana. This is a yearly increase
of 1.83% (Danso-Wiredu 2013:2).

GHANA

9

3.44 Bn

14

1.81 Bn

0.32 Bn

Cocoa paste not defatted

Gold

executing public interests.
This legal insecurity is one of the main reasons for
the provisional character of the buildings in the analysed Informal Settlements in Ghana and Tanzania.
100% in the section
Both characteristics are as mentioned
Informal Settlements two of the five criteria defined by
UN-HABITAT which describe an Informal Settlement.
In this case it was especially the legal insecurity which
has lead to the provisional character of the buildings.
This means that a focus in solving this issue should be
prioritized over the development of stable houses. An
interview with a former inhabitant of Amui Djor confirms
this (Terry 2013).
As we have pointed out earlier, the demand for lowprice houses in urban Ghana has increased due to the
SAP and the internal migration. In total 1.5MM flats
were lacking in Ghana in 2000 (UN-HABITAT 2011:2).
Danso Wiredu (2013:2) mentions, that the need for
houses increases in Ghana by 120,000 per year, but
only 40,000 are built. Private real estate developers
focus on providing the small upper class and middle
class with high quality living area. The developers often build Gated Communities8: Wiredu estimates, that
between 2004 and 2007 23 Gated Communities with
3.644 dwellings and a market value of USD 434.8MM
were constructed. An amount, which would allow to
build 17,300 middle class buildings and a multiple
thereof of low-price flats for the migrating rural population. In fact, the informal building sector creates 80% of
the dwellings (Danso-Wiredu 2013:7-8). The situation
is getting worse as increasing wealth leads to a rapid
growth of gated communities (Adjaye 2010:49). The
refusal of the building sector and the government to
create low-price living area lead to the reality that 5MM
Cocoa beans, whole

32.2 Bn

(1) Accra
Settlement Upgrade

GDP

Population

24.4 MM

GAL

4. Here we ignore individual reasons for migration and focus on
the reasons which concerns the majority of the migrants. The
internal migration describes the emigration of a group of people
within a determined area (country, federation, state union).
5. Currently more than 50% of the total African population works in
the Informal Economy (Danso-Wiredu 2013:9).
6. It is called stool or skin land, as the land is bound to the stool of
the chief or the skin of the tribe.
7. The customary law is not stipulated by the state, but by the
participants through continuous practice.
8. Gated Communities are closed housing areas with access limitations. Their private character is contrary to the public area in a
city and they can only be entered by members.

Description of the Place

TANZANIA

Ghana is situated at the Atlantic (fig.9). In front of its
coast oil has been found some years ago, which has
lead to an economic boom in these regions.9 The
boom increased the rural migration to agglomerations
near the coast such as Accra. Ghana is now classified
by the World Bank as a country with middle income
(UN-HABITAT 2011:3). 50% of the urban region
belongs to the high density low class: In this area
the population has a great ethnic variety. There live
primarily migrants, who dispose of a very low income.
The infrastructure is badly developed and the buildings
are sometimes provisional wooden shacks (UN-HABITAT 2011:9, 11). According to UN-HABITAT (ibid:5-6)
houses in Ghana are â&#x20AC;&#x17E;reasonably well builtâ&#x20AC;&#x153; and have
secure tenure. This contradicts especially the situation
in Amui Djor, where the government tried to solve the
problems of Informal Settlements with expulsion or the
threatening of expulsion (Danso-Wiredu 2013:7, Terry
2013).
Multiple cultural mechanisms lead in Ghana to a
good social and sanitary basis: The personal hygiene
is culturally highly appreciated, which decreases the
danger of infectious diseases. Additionally, the living
situation is improved as the population normally cooks
outside (UN-HABITAT 2011:6). The family-system in
Ghana prevents homelessness as practically everyone has a place which he or she can call home. This
system is particularly in the urban area well developed
and very much appreciated by UN-HABITAT (2011:8).
53,9% of all living rooms in Accra are traditional
compound houses. Hereby the rooms are arranged

(2)
Re

11

10

around a common free space. This free space can be
an atrium or a courtyard, which is divided by fences
or walls from the public space (fig. 10-11). Generally,
either a family, a community, or strangers live in these
compound houses together. Newly established Informal Settlements follow this traditional building type of
compound houses (ibid.:45-46). It is attractive for the
population for various reasons: Most households canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t
afford building an entire house. In 2000, for instance,
the share of one-room households in Accra was between 61 and 65% (Danso-Wiredu 2013:4). In compound houses, as mentioned before, one-room households are situated next to each other in a compound
(Danso-Wiredu 2013:9). This means that the rooms
although inhabited by different people are built side by
side to define a territory. This is an effective method
for acquiring properties in legally insecure areas. The
enclosed free areas of the courtyards are protected
against others building on these (fig. 11). This free
spaces surrounded by fences or walls are built-up later
on according to the need of the community. Commonly
used rooms such as the kitchen, the wet room, and
free areas are shared among the other inhabitants
for further cost reduction. This makes the building of
compound houses cheaper than those of detached
houses (ibid.). This allows the low-income population to obtain property. In Accra 64% of all one-room

12

13
Fig. 9: Accra is next to the Atlantic.
Fig. 10: Layout of a typical Compound House (UNHABITAT:2011b:46). Notice the arangement and the various
sizes of the one-room dwellings around the large inner
courtyard.
Fig. 11: Contour of a Compound House in Amui Djor, Accra. Mind
the entry.
Fig. 12: A groud-level sewer in Amui Djor. It raises the danger of
infections.
Fig. 13: Because the waste collection service is hardly affordable
for the inhabitants of the Informal Settlements in Amui Djor,
they burn or dump it on the street.

15

There are primarily „[…] makeshift wooden homes
with no bathrooms or water (Terry 2013)“. The effluent
and waste disposal is problematic. The open sewers
(fig. 12) leads to a high danger of infectious diseases
and the spreading of malaria and cholera. Moreover,
the population burn their waste as they can’t afford
the garbage collection (ebid) (fig. 13). The organization Slum Dwellers International, taking part in the
upgrade, describes the district as „[...] a lively, buzzing,
and tight-knit collection of communities with a thriving
informal economy, a harmonious environment (Torresi 2012)“. Commerce is taking place foremost on the
streets, which makes the culture appear very lively (fig.
14).

14

9. The GDP has trippled between 2000 and 2008: USD 4.97Bn
(2000), USD 16.12Bn (2008).
10. The population density of the city of Accra: 250.73 people / hectare; Informal Settlement Accra: 607.8 people / hectare (DansoWiredu 2013:5).
11. Ashley Terry is a senior producer at globalnews.ca. She was in
2013 with Journalists for Human Rights for the purpose of Shaw
Africa Project in Ghana.

Project Description

15

households are occupied by more than 3 persons
(UN-HABITAT 2011:64). Furthermore the population
density of Informal Settlements in Accra is more than
twice as high than the city of Accra has.10 The Informal
Settlements hence take up a third of the urban population of Greater Accra (Danso-Wiredu 2013:5). The
Bank of Ghana claims to reduce the population density
to a maximum of two people per room. If we wanted
to implement this, we would have to create in Ghana
between 2010 and 2020 5.7MM rooms (Dano-Wiredu
2013:10).
The perception of our analysis on Amui Djor is
diverging: UN-HABITAT describes it as a district,
which is well served with water, electricity and public toilets (UN-HABITAT 2009:19-20). Ashley Terry, a
Canadian reporter,11 who has visited the district after
its upgrade, documents a different side of Amui Djor:
16

The discussed development aid concerns an upgrading of an Informal Settlement also called a slum
upgrade. In order to evaluate the success and failure of this project, we first define the upgrade of an
Informal Settlement in general: Informal Settlements
as described in the section Informal Settlements have
many problems which challenges the life of its inhabitants. An upgrade solves or diminishes these problems. If for example in an Informal Settlement there
is not sufficient drinking water, building a well could
resolve this problem. As we have demonstrated in
the part Description of the Place Amui Djor has problems concerning the effluent and waste disposal, the
security of tenure and the provisional construction of
most of the buildings. The upgrade aims to improve all
three issues locally. There are three project phases:
First, a smaller demonstration project with six flats and
two shops were built. With the gained knowledge, the
bigger pilot project, what is the focus of this chapter,
should have been constructed with 18 flats and six
shops on a 27x24m big plot (UN-HABITAT 2013a). If
the pilot project was successful, bigger projects of the
same type would be built to supply the whole informal
district (fig. 15).12
When comparing the requirements for the pilot proj-

ect in its conceptualization phase to the established
project, we observe great differences: Although the
size of the plot area stayed the same, the number of
flats increased from 18 to 31 and the number of shops
from 6 to 15 (UN-Habitat 2013a, SDI 2013). As the living area with 18m2 (Tweneboa 2011:Slide 9) is relatively small for a household, we can assume that the
size of the flats has been reduced during the project
development. The twelve toilets and six bathrooms
on the ground floor are commercial. Inhabitants of the
informal district must pay for their usage. The project
creates property but only in a limited way, as the land
of Amui Djor is stool land (cf. section The development
of Informal Settlements).
Ownership remains difficult to access.13 The tenants
of the Informal Settlements belong to the Tema Traditional Council and pay rent to them. They construct
the buildings on the leased property (UN-HABITAT
2009:61). If the lease agreement is not prolonged or
rescinded, the property including all immobile goods
goes into the ownership of Tema Traditional Council.
It comes as no surprise why the buildings in Amui
Djor are foremost of provisional character: Who would
invest more capital and effort into a building, which
stands on rented ground? This causes social pressure.
Simultaneously, is the land property of Tema Development Corporation that threatens the population with
the expulsion of the Informal Settlements (Terry 2013).
The claim of ownership by both parties makes the legal
situation for the inhabitants insecure. This is why the
inhabitants of Amui Djor demand the state to transform
the stool land to parceled private property,14 so they
can develop more freely (ebid).
12. „The project has been conceived as a trust-building pilot to demonstrate the approach and facilitate the scaling-up to serve the
entire settlement‘s needs (UN-HABITAT 2009:19).“
13. In Amui Djor 60% of the inhabitants are tenants (UN-HABITAT
2009:31).
14. The inhabitants call it their 50x50, a standard size for properties.
Protests in 2012 claimed for it (Terry 2013).

16

17

18
Fig. 14: A street scene with markets in Amui Djor. The merchants
are selling and processing the goods at the market.
Fig. 15: The map (M 1:25.000) shows the locations of the current
and future upgrades of the quarter. The bigger circle marks
the analysed project, which is bigger than the previous pilot
project (small circle to the northwest).
Fig. 16: The three storey high pilot project after its completion.
Notice the shops at the ground level floor.
Fig. 17: The completely enclosed inner court yard with access balconies and the stairwell.
Fig. 18: Two dwellings of the project.

17

The Structure of Development Aid

Bill and
Melinda
Gates
Foundation

UN-HABITAT SUF
Goverment

Guarantee

TAMSUF

Repayment

$

Loan

There are 10 different organizations which took part
in the project: UN-HABITAT SUF,15 TAMSUF, Ghana
Federation of the Urban Poor, Tema Traditional Council, Ghana Homeless Federation, Amui Djor Housing
Cooperative Society, Ashaiman Municipality, Tema
Metropolitan Assembly, Tema Development Cooperation and the Indian architectural office Tekton Consultants (fig. 19). The most important project participants
are: UN-HABITAT SUF and TAMSUF are both financial
institutions for the upgrading of Informal Settlements.
The latter is a merger of the participating organizations
(UN-HABITAT 2009a:11) and a local partner of the
former in Ghana. Tema Traditional Council, Ashaiman
Municipality and Tema Metropolitan Assembly are governmental organizations. The Tema Traditional Council
(TMC) is the representative for the tribe, that owns the
stool land and also the Tema Development Corporation
(TDC) claims ownership of the land (Terry 2013). The
TMC acquired the land through practiced customary
law. The TDC is tenant of the land through a political
decree of 1952 for 125 years (TDC 2013). The Amui
Djor Housing Cooperative Society is a housing cooperation, which consists of the lessee of the flats.
The structural diagram demonstrates the relationships between the project partners and the financial
flow (fig. 20): TAMSUF is at the center: It guarantees
with its capital for bank loans of the Housing Cooperation. TAMSUF receives USD 500,000, which equals
96% of the total capital, for the bond from the international SUF (Tweneboa 2011:Slide 7). From the
government of Ghana it gets the last 4%, USD 20,000
(SDI 2013). The bank lends money to the Housing
Cooperation, that finances the building costs16 with this
money. Recalculating17 we note that after 10 years the
total costs are nearly paid off.18 The earnings from the
income go to the bank, which releases step by step the

UN-HABITAT SUF

TAMSUF
Housing
Cooperation

Ghana
Federation of
Urban Poor

Ashaiman
Municipal
Assembly

Tema
Traditional
Council

Ghana
Homeless
Federation

Tema
Metropolitan
Assembly

Tema
Development
Corporation

Goverment

Property Owner

Deposit

$

Hire Purchase

Housing
Cooperation

Tekton
Consultants
Implementing

Finance Facility

19

18

20

Resident

21

Fig. 19: Participating organisations and companies, grouped by their
role within the project.
Fig. 20: A cash flow diagram, which represents the guarantee, loan
and repayment process. The most fundings were supplied
by UN-HABITAT SUF.
Fig. 21: The figure ground plan displays the part of Amui Djor, where
the project took place in 2009. The buildings within the
dashed red line are cleared away for the pilot project.
Fig. 22: The developed pilot project in 2013. Compare the prior
courtyard situation with the new.

by TAMSUF bailed for guarantees (Tweneboa 2011).
15. SUF... Slum Upgrading Facility
16. According to the final report of TAMSUF, the total costs add up to
USD 238,904 (Tweneboa 2011:Slide 21). In 2009 a total of USD
130,000 have been estimated for the development of the pilot
project by UN-HABITAT (UN-HABITAT 2009:19).
17. Sanitary installations = USD 240 / month; Office rent = USD
601 / month; Hire purchase of all flats = USD 133,920; -238,904
+ 133,920 + (240 + 601) * 12 month * 10 years = USD -4,064
(Tweneboa 2011).
18. When letting aside the interests of the loan and the appreciation
of the shops.

22

Spatial Consequences
The structural change of the district is illustrated by the
two figure ground plans (fig. 21-22): Figure 21 shows
how the buildings related to each other before the interference. The red line marks the property of the pilot
project. The fences and walls have not been included
in the figure ground plans. However, we can still notice
that the buildings stand in a way which allows them to
enclose several free spaces of different sizes: two bigger courtyards are facing away from the streets. Figure
11, which we have shown in the section Description of
the Place illustrates clearly, that the courtyards are collectively used free spaces: There is a tree, laundry is
dried and as we know from the same section, it is also
used for cooking. It is a place, which is important for
the inhabitants. In figure 22, on the contrary, the construction of the pilot project removed this free space. It
has been substituted by a completely closed building.
The building isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t situated on the same building line as
the other buildings of the neighborhood, but is relocated away from the street, probably to create parking
19

23
Fig. 23: Locals preparing Fufu, the national dish of Ghana, which is
frequently served as a side dish.

spaces. We don’t know whether the inhabitants of the
demolished buildings19 were compensated or if only
the tribe has received compensation.
19. It concerns seven houses, which are clearly differentiable from
each other in the figure ground plan. As the buildings are big, we
can assume, that it affected at least 7 households.

Evaluation of the Project
As we have talked in the section Description of the
place about a lively street commerce, it appears
strange to us, that a development aid project for the
upgrading of an Informal Settlement involves the
creation of 15 indoor shops. UN-HABITAT (2009:39)
points out, that shops on the ground floor don’t only
bring advantages but also disadvantages: The hire20

purchase price per flat is reduced by the money
generated through the sales of the shops, but it bears
the risk that the housing community will not tolerate
strangers in their property. We will now argue that shifting the market away from the streets to closed shops
created more problems than originally assumed by
UN-HABITAT: The trade on the streets is more flexible.
The merchants either don’t have to pay anything for
the stand, as it is directly situated in front of their house
or they only pay when they have to sell something.
A merchant doesn’t have everyday the same amount
of goods available for offer. It is common that he may
have sold so much on Monday that on Tuesday he
only needs half the space and from Thursday onwards
doesn’t need the stand at all. On the contrary, others
may have only every second week enough goods to
sell them. The merchant pays a daily rate, or at least
for a shorter timeframe than renting a shop, whose fee
also depends on the space he occupies. This is why
the market on the street is more flexible. The second
project of our analysis (chapter III, section Description
of the Project) will allow us to have a deeper look at
this. We should now ask ourselves the following questions: Which shops generate enough profit in an Informal Settlement, to be able to pay continuously rent for
the shops? Which products must be offered at which
prices, to be profitable? This question we can’t answer
immediately, without becoming too general. But we
can turn the question around, which makes it easier
to answer: Who can’t afford to rent their own shops?
More than half of the total African population, who are
engaged mainly in the Informal Economy (Danso-Wiredu 2013:9). As explained in the section The Development of Informal Settlements in Accra there is a great
demand for low-price living areas, which is flexible
enough to also serve as working space. We have also
mentioned that the share of one-room households in
Accra lays between 60 and 64% and 64% of those are
occupied by more than 3 people (cf. section Description of the Place). It is very unlikely, that someone, who
lives from an irregular income from engaging in the
Informal Economy and sharing a room with more than
three people rents a shop.20
Looking at the building and its context (cf. section
Description of the place) we see that the house very
much differs from those in its neighborhood: The buildings in the informal settlement are almost exclusively
one-storey makeshift wooden bungalows with tin roofs,
while the pilot project is a three-storey house made of
concrete (fig. 8, 16). The concrete construction also
has fluent water, wet rooms and kitchens (SDI 2013,
Terry 2013). The vending takes place against the cultural habit not in front but within the building. It seems

as if there are privileged people living in the concrete
building. We must also ask, why a development aid
project, which aims to improve the sanitary situation of an Informal Settlement, charges for toilets and
bathrooms? Also we wonder about the little number of
toilets. An inhabitant describes the sanitary situation
as follows: “in the mornings, the lineup for the toilets is
so long that people end up defecating on themselves
or are forced to go outside“ (Terry 2013).” Looking at
the investment structure of the project in the section
Development aid structure, we see that the income
which comes from the shops and the sanitary installations helps to finance the flats. This reduces the price
of the flats. This is why we can argue, that the main
aim of the development aid project is the Creation of
property. The building of sanitary installations is more
a means for financing the property than an actual approach to improve the sanitary situation of the district.
Therefore, the upgrade of the Informal Settlement is
only partly successful: Secure property in a stable
building has been created. Unfortunately, this building
is more a social housing complex of western cultures
than a building which adapts to the cultural features of
the local population: The ceilings of the dwellings are
too low.21 It lacks the common open courtyard, in which
the social life of the house can take place.22 The closed
shops don’t correspond to the lived market culture of
streets. The sanitary situation has only been improved
slightly, loses however its effectiveness through charges for their usage and their small number. Despite
these highlighted deficiencies the project has won two
prices in Accra on the Conference for Housing Excellence (UN-HABITAT 2011a).23
The building should serve as a prototype for the supply of the informal district. If we take into account all
the deficiencies of the pilot project, we must doubt the
supply ability of this building type for the district. The
construction of more similar houses for the upgrading
of the district is unlikely, as the negotiations between
the owners and developers were cancelled (Terry
2013). The stool land makes it difficult to privatize land.
A documented parcelling, which conforms to the actual
development, is missing. In Amui Djor the property for
the pilot project was pitched and measured locally, so
the representatives of the stool land and the developers were able to communicate on where and how
much ground can be privatized (UN-HABITAT 2009:34,
43).
According to Wiredu (2013:6) a reasonable solution
for the habitat problem in Ghana can only come from
the state. As we have seen, the problems come mainly
from the unsecure legal situation of the properties for
private ownership and the refusal of the building indus-

try to create flexible low-price living space. Therefore,
an improvement of the situation can only come from
an institution strong in capital and law-changing such
as the state. In addition, a political unity is needed. As
politic in Ghana is divided in ethnic parties, an unity
becomes difficult: The population votes their politicians
mainly based on their own ethnic affiliation and not
because of their political programs. A change of the
situation through the will of the constituents is hence
unlikely (Danso-Wiredu 2013:7).
20. Monthly rent for the shop is USD 40 (Tweneboa 2011:Slide 10).
21. The height of the room is too low for traditional cooking methods:
Fufu, the national dish in Ghana, which is a side dish of many
meals, is made with a big mortar. In order to pound the tough
dough, the pestle must have a significant size (compare fig. 23
with fig.18).
22. The traditional compound house with courtyard has proved itself
in the culture of Ghana (cf. section Description of the Place).
23. „Best social innovative housing project for the urban poor and
low income people and best designed architectural concept for
a mixed use development in social housing for the urban poor
(UN-HABITAT 2011a).“ The jury consisted of representatives of
British organizations and companies.

Discussion on the Relationship between
Development Aid and Space
At the analysed development aid project a direct
relationship between development aid and space can
be observed: The development aid has substituted a
flexible and from the local culture influenced informal
habitat by a formal habitat based on western standards. Furthermore, it improved the life for the informal
population only poorly and doesn’t offer any general
solutions to the problems. The conflicts concerning the
property rights remain unsolved. The critic mentioned
in the section Development Aid of chapter I on the
concept of a purely technical development aid oriented
towards western standards is also applicable to this
case.

21

I I I : I n f o r m a l R ese ttl emen t i n
D a r e s s a l a a m, Ta n za n i a

24

Overview
The redevelopment of the harbour district in Daressalaam, Tanzania from 2004 to 2012, led to the resettlement and eviction of 36,000 inhabitants of Informal
Settlements (fig. 24). Besides the measures taken by
the government to deal with the evicted people the
Tanzania Federation of the Urban Poor and the Centre
for Community Initiatives started their own resettlement
programme for those affected people who were not
supported by the government. In doing so, they used
a â&#x20AC;&#x153;community-driven approach to urban development
(Ndezi 2009a:87).â&#x20AC;? The study will discuss the spatial
impact of the two resettlement programs, in particular
the latter one.
Description of the Place
Daressalaam, the capital of Tanzania, is located at the
Indian Ocean (fig. 25). Its harbour is a very important
junction for the international commerce of the landlocked African countries1 (Mero 2011:1). This com22

merce takes up about 50% of the total trade volume of
the harbour (Mero 2011:4) and increased strongly between 2001 and 2002.2 In spite of Daressalaams large
industry sector (Mero 2011:2), the agriculture is the
most important economy of Tanzania: 63% of the total
population is primarily engaged in it, and more than
50% of the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s GDP are accounted to it (Ndezi
2009:3). However, the majority of the urban population
is engaged in the Informal Economy (UN-HABITAT
2013). The earnings in the agriculture sector are low
and the ones in the Informal Economy are unsteady.
As a consequence of this, up to 50% of the total population lives beyond the poverty line.3
Tanzania experienced a rapid urban growth in the
last 50 years (fig. 26). In 2007, for instance, 14 times
more people lived in urban areas, than in 1967,4 and
in 2013 it was a quarter of Tanzanias total population
(ibid.). The population increase and a strong annual
urban growth rate of 7 to 11% (ibid.) led to the demand
of 80,000 urban dwellings per year. About 61,000 or
76% of those are tenements (Ndezi 2009:5). This high

44.8 MM
22.9 Bn

25

70%

MM 50
45

60%

za

nia

Inform. Settlem. Growth Rate in Daressalam

40

pT
an

30

20

10
Pop Daressalaam

4.5
MM 0

1960

1985

2010

0%
26

Fig. 24: A partly cleared Informal Settlement next to a development
in Daressalaam.
Fig. 25: Daressalaam is the capitol of Tanzania and is located at the
Indian Ocean.
Fig. 26: A diagram comparing the population growth of Tanzania
and Daresalaam to the growth rate of Informal Settlements
in Daressalaam.

23

GDP

Population

(2) Daressalaam
Resettlement

Po

0.32 Bn

Cocoa paste not defatted

TANZANIA

Population

1.81 Bn

Gold

Cocoa beans, whole

share of tenements points out, that in Tanzania, as well
as we have seen in Ghana (chapter II), there is few private property. A majority of the population lives in Informal Settlements: In 2009, it were about 59% throughout Tanzania (Ndezi 2009a:70). The share is generally
higher in cities than on the countryside, whereby 70%
100% of Daressalaam are afof the 4 million inhabitants
fected (Ndezi 2009:1). This high portion is due to the
design of the property law, which makes it hard for
people to get access to private property: The land of
Tanzania is, generally speaking, owned by the public
and is vested in the President (UN-HABITAT 2009:29).
However, access to land is given by three distinctive
kinds: The Statutory Tenures, the traditional Customary Tenures and the Informal Tenures (ibid.). The first
one is a long term lease for a maximum of 99 years by
granting a “Right of Occupancy” certificate by the state
(Ndezi 2009a:78-79). If the property is located within
an urban administrative district and the tenant doesn’t
own an officially recognized Right of Occupancy then
it is called an Informal Tenure. The traditional Customary Tenure is done by carrying out customary law by a
community (cf. definition at footnote 9 in section The
Emergence of Informal Settlements of chapter II) and
not by owning an official certificate. In 1998 the Court
of Appeals ruled that the ownership of urban land by
customary law is illegal.5 This turned 70% of Daressalaams dwellers into squatters, and therefore pushed
them into illegality (UN-HABITAT 2009:29-30). Now the
legal occupation of land by Customary Law can only
happen outside of urban districts. Acquiring a Right of
Occupancy and a building permission is expansive and
time consuming (Ndezi 2009:1), hence the common
way of acquiring land is done by Customary Tenure
outside and Informal Tenure inside city boundaries.
Therefore we have to conclude that there are only two
legal kinds of possessing land in Tanzania and one
of them is only valid if the property is outside the city,
but because city boarders are shifting outwards due
to the rapid urban growth the formerly rightful possessed Customary Tenures are rendered illegal by this
(UN-HABITAT 2009:30). Furthermore the state has the
right to expropriate every property,6 if it is in the common interest of the country. This includes a protocol
for compensation, but only for those who have a valid
Right of Occupancy document (Ndezi 2009a:80). The
attempts done by the state to improve the situation of
Informal Settlements were not successful: There have
been clearings during the 60ies to make way for highstandard buildings for the urban poor, but because of
the high social and economical cost of the approach
lesser dwellings have been constructed than people
turned homeless by the clearings. It became obvious
3.44 Bn

32.2 Bn
GDP

Population

24.4 MM

(1) Accra
Settlement Upgrade

that tis approach is unsustainable (Ndezi 2009a:78).
Since 2004 the state attempts to regulate Informal
Settlements by issuing temporary occupation licences,
but only 270,000 licences have been distributed in
Daressalaam between 2004 and 2008 (UN-HABITAT
2009:30). This is little compared to the estimated
2.7 million informal dwellers in Daressalaam in 2007
(Ndezi 2009:1), but is chiefly due to the high administrative effort which is attended by the issuing.
The affected harbour area Kurasini Ward is located
at a bay of Daressalaam, nearby the centre of the city.
In it’s five settlement areas, there live about 36,000
inhabitants (Bachmayer 2012:8), which mainly reside
there, because the rents are lower than in the rest of
the city (Home. Int. 2013b), and because its industry
offers a lot formal and informal occupation possibilities. The settlements occupies 195 hectare (30%) of
Kurasini Ward. 35 to 80% of those are informal.7 The
harbour itself takes up about 332 hectare (50%) of the
total area (Mero 2011:6-8). Due to the weak building
sector in Tanzania and because the National Housing Cooperation, which is the only public organization
that is responsible for the creation of housing space,
had not managed to create enough dwellings for the
migrating and increasing urban population, most individuals built dwellings on the empty properties and in
the building gaps (Ndezi 2009:5). But the situation of
those Informal Settlements is precarious: The waste
water disposal is weak and oxidation ponds are adjoining it and a market (fig. 27-28). During strong rainfall
the untreated content of the ponds are flooding both,
24

what increases the danger of infections. Furthermore
the water supply is done by power driven pump wells,
which fail during power jams and therefore water shortage happens regularly (Mero 2011:11).
1. Malawi, Zambia, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, East-DRC (Mero
2011:1).
2. The total trading volume of the harbour fluctuated between 3.7
and 4.4 million tons between 1993 and 2001. From 2001 to 2002
it increased by 22% to 5MM tons (Mero 2011:5 Chart No. 2.2).
3. UN-HABITAT (2013) mentions that 50% of Tanzanias population
has an income lower than USD 1 a day. Ndezi (2009:3) speaks
about 36% of the total and 50% of the urban population in Informal Settlements of Daressalaam (Ndezi 2009a:77-78). The real
figure is probably between.
4. 1967: 685,000 (6.4%); 2002: MM 7.6 (22.6%); 2007: MM 9.5
(Ndezi 2009:5);
5. „no person has the right to own urban land under customary
law [and that] anyone who owns land in an urban area without a
granted right of occupancy was a squatter without title (Kironde
and Lusugga, 2009 in UN-HABITAT 2009:29-30).“
6. Land Act of 1999: Residential Licences; These licences are valid
for six month to twelve years and can be renewed (UN-HABITAT
2009:30).
7. Mero (2011:6) states in the official redevelopment statement
of the government about 35% Informal Settlements in Kurasini
Ward. Ndezi (2009:6) and Bachmayer (2012:6), both part of CCI,
are speaking about 70 to 80%.

27
Fig. 27: In the foreground of the image is a building site, where
once was an Informal Settlement. An existing one is in
the upper left part of the image. Next to it are the three
oxidation ponds with a total surface area of 3.7 hectare
(Mero 2011:11).
Fig. 28: A figure ground plan illustrates the intervention done
by the governments harbor redevelopment to the
settlement structure. It also locates the oxidation ponds
within the settlement.

28

25

Description of the Project

29

30

26

The main reasons for the redevelopment of the
harbour area is the increasing cargo traffic and the
non-harbour-compatible occupations of the area in
Kurasini Ward, both mentioned in section Description of the Place. The most conflicting ones are the
Informal Settlements, which are frequently built within
high risk zones, adjoining train tracks, oil and normal
storage buildings (Mero 2011:1). These places are
overcrowded and narrow (Home. Int. 2013b), which
renders emergency missions nearly impossible, because vehicles get stuck due to the narrowness of the
streets, and furthermore are highly fire hazardous. In
particular the latter endangers not only the inhabitants,
but also the harbour itself: A fire would destroy goods
and limit the port operations, which hinders the growth
of it and repelles investors.
Informal Settlements are regularly cleared and their
inhabitants expelled, if the harbour grows. This led
in Kurasini Ward to a population decrease of 4,000
people (Mero 2011:4), whereas the total population of
Daressalaam increased by 82% between 1988 and
2000 (fig. 26). The redevelopment plans to extend the
harbour by 68 hectare. The settlement area will be
decreased by 83 hectare, what almost exclusively affects Informal Settlements (Mero 2011:12-13) (fig. 2930). Comparing the land usage schemes (fig. 31-32)
elucidates the extension of the port area between 2009
and 2012: Some of the settlements have been already
cleared and the unoccupied areas, as well as those
became empty by the clearance are now occupied by
port facilities. By this, the areas allocated to it are not
exclusively filled up by buildings, but are rather used
for the temporary storage and sorting of cargo which is
an important key for a frictionless port operation (Ndezi
2009a:81, Mero 2011:1) (fig. 29-30). The spatial consequence of this is that formerly dense settled areas
become fenced empty spaces which â&#x20AC;&#x201C; dependent on
the current cargo volume of the port â&#x20AC;&#x201C; are either empty
barren land or with cargo crowded spaces. Either way,
both dominate the urban landscape (fig. 27-28, 31-32).
The IFC (2002) Handbook for Preparing a Resettlement Action Plan recommends to choose a resettlement destination close to the place of origin to avert
breaking existing economic and social connections. If
this is not possible, then a place has to be found, that
has comparable income and social structures (Ndezi
2009a:80). The government of Tanzania promised to
resettle the affected people with little social disruption.8 Comparing this with its intervention introduces
two discrepancies: Firstly, the Ministry of Lands has
announced to only compensate the building owners
(ibid.:82) what produces big social problems, because

70% of all inhabitants of Kurasini Ward are tenants and
not owners (Ndezi 2009:6). Therefore a main part of
the inhabitants doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get a compensation. Their only
way to claim an entitlement to it can be done by their
landlords (Ndezi 2009a:82), though the latter will probably avoid this, because the compensation budget is
way too low: Ndezi (ibid.) estimates the budget, which
is necessary to compensate for the whole port area at
USD 70MM. In contrast to this, the Ministry of Lands
only appointed USD 840,000 to it (Mero 2011:16).
A further side effect of this is that the government is
not able to compensate the affected landlords within
the 6 month time limit (Ndezi 2009a:83), which is laid
down by law. Moreover the government is forced to
sell some of the cleared properties to use a part of
the profit to compensate the expropriated landlords
(ibid.:82). This delay slows down the advancement of
the resettlement. Secondly, the governments resettlement destination areas Kitunda and Kibada are on the
other side of the harbour bay (fig. 35) and there is no
bridge connecting both sides. Therefore the resettled
inhabitants are cut off of the port area. A bridge is
proposed by Mero (2011:14-15) which connects both
bay banks, but there is no evidence of a construction
start (2013).9 The redevelopment arrangements of the
government donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t support or consider the needs of the
majority of the affected people. Therefore a part of the
evicted resettle at the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s periphery (Ndezi 2009a:83)
or on the last free spots in the imperiled settlement.
That yields a strong redensification of the existing
Informal Settlements in Kurasini Ward (fig. 28, 33-34).
A reason for this is the circumstance that a major part
of the inhabitants are too dependent from the port
economy to separate from it,10 and as a consequence
rather resettle in the building gaps of the existing
Informal Settlements nearby their former residence.11
However, this redensification is only a short-term
solution, because the redevelopment scheme plans to
remove all Informal Settlements in Kurasini Ward (fig.
29-30) whereby these high dense ones are also going
to be cleared. If the government would have explained
the scheme to its full extend to the affected inhabitants,
provided a place to resettle which has a similar economy as the place of origin or one from which the inhabitants can commute to the port easily, and compensate
the tenants according to their lost and in time, then
there would not have been such a strong redensification within an already imperiled area.
The Tanzania Federation of the Urban Poor (TFUP)
developed together with the Centre for Community
Initiatives (CCI) an additional solution for this unconsidered 70% of the affected population: TFUP created
a community savings and loan scheme (UN-HABITAT

31

32

Fig. 29: The land use prior to the redevelopment in Kurasini
Ward. The bold white line outlines the Informal
Settlements.
Fig. 30: Planned land use (the redevelopment scheme).
Fig. 31: Settlement and industry areas in Kurasini Ward prior
to the execution of the redevelopment scheme in
2009.
Fig. 32: AM in 2012. During the execution.

27

33

28

Fig. 33: A figure ground plan of Kurasini Ward in 2004.
The black solids are Informal Buildings. The
yellow ones are industry buildings like storage
depots.
Fig. 34: AM in 2012. Mind the large fenced open areas
(yellow lines) surrounding the cleared buildings
(black outline). The newly developed informal
buildings (red solid) are filling the gaps of the
existing settlements and are therefore densifying it, what makes the living conditions worse.

34

29

35

2013) and is mobilizing the affected inhabitants together with CCI since 2004 (Ndezi 2009a:81). Every
member of the savings scheme puts a small amount of
money into the pot every month, thereby the federation
becomes much more credit-worthy than a single member, because it has â&#x20AC;&#x201C; due to the number of its members â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a much higher equity capital than one member
by itself. As a result, it gets better credit terms from
banks. 2007 TFUP acquired a 30 hectare property in
Chamazi (ibid.:84-85), which is 9km to the southwest
of the harbour (fig. 35). The property was mainly barren land and the roads network was weakly developed
prior to the resettlement (fig. 36, 39, 42), but within one
year a widely ramified traffic network was established
which forms parcels between the streets (fig. 37,40).
On these the inhabitants are slowly developing their
houses. At the same time, the development of houses
is happening much faster outside the plot (fig. 39-41).
The socioeconomic data collected in Kurasini Ward by
TFUP indicates, that the plot sizes of Informal Settle30

ments are between 60 and 200m2. Therefore the real
plot sizes of Informal Settlements are 2 to 6.5 times
smaller than the standard laid down by law (Ndezi
2009a:83-84).12 This is a problem for creating low
budget dwelling space, because it hinders the creation
of small buildings, which would be in accordance with
the budget of the inhabitants of former Informal Settlements. Finally TFUP managed to convince the government to allow smaller plot sizes for Chamazi (ibid.:86).
There, 300 dwellings will be built for the displaced
families and 200 for renting (Home. Int. 2013). A horticulture market, workshops, a health center, a school
and a roofed market will also be constructed (UN-HABITAT 2013). The market and the tenements will generate income (UN-HABITAT 2009:39), what is going to
accelerate the growth of the settlement and the local
economy. The market (fig. 48) has a flexible concept
which fits to the needs of a broad bandwidth of merchants: It offers stalls which can be rented per month
or week, but also a central empty space where people

36

37

38
Fig. 35: A map representing the main roads of Daressalaam, the settlement
and industry area, the demolished area in the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s centre, the two
resettlement destination areas defined by the government (Kitunda
and Kibada), and the discussed resettlement destination area
defined by the NGO (Chamazi). Compare the shortest commutation
paths between the resettlement areas and the harbour.
Fig. 36: Settlement area and streets of Chamazi in 2004.
Fig. 37: AM. in 2005. Notice the rapid street development.
Fig. 38: AM. in 2012.

can offer their goods for a daily charge or for people
who donâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;t need much space. It is flexible, because itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
construction is an one storey column grid â&#x20AC;&#x201C; similar to
a warehouse. The market stands are divided by easily
mountable security screens between the columns,
and are therefore easily adjustable to the needs of the
merchants (Bachmayer 2012:11). For this reason, this
market outmatches the retail spaces in Amui Djor (cf.
chapter II, Evaluation of the Project).
Small adaptable building systems have been developed in order to reduce the costs of the buildings
(ibid.:18) (fig. 44-47, 49-54). This is very important,
because this allows completing a less expensive
inhabitable basic module of the whole building within
a shorter time than completing the final building,
whose financing can take several years. The detached
houses are built close to each other (fig. 43), because
the narrow streets give shade during the hot days in
Daressalaam, the sharing of walls reduces the building
costs, and it also reduces the construction and maintenance costs of the infrastructure for the whole settle32

ment.13 Only few residents own a car, therefore open
public spaces are in favor to parking lots. Usually free
spaces are going to be illegally occupied by buildings
in Informal Settlements to gain additional income by
leasing them. In contrary to that, CCI expects that if a
free space belongs to a community (fig. 44-47, 52-54)
then the common interest in it is likely to prevent it from
getting occupied (Bachmayer 2012:19-20).
The inhabitants are involved in many parts of the
development and construction of the settlement: They
assist in the selection of the building materials, take
part in the foundation works, and even produce construction material by themselves (Home. Int. 2013c,
Home. Int. 2013a, Home. Int. 2013b).14 This increases
their satisfaction towards the buildings and makes it
easier for them to identify with the place. Additionally,
the growth of the settlement is accelerated, because
the construction costs are reduced and a main part
of the money stays within the community, or because
the members are getting interdependent by promised
debts: If a community member is participating at the

40

41

33

Fig. 42: Barren land in Chamazi in 2010.
Fig. 43: Construction site of the development in Chamazi in 2010.

construction works, then either he gets money from the
building owner or the latter promises the former to help
him constructing his building as well.
A downside of the place is that the part of the population which is dependent from the harbour has to
commute 13km to get there (fig. 35). This is especially
bad for people who are engaging mostly in the Informal Economy, because their earnings are low and
irregular. Commuting costs time and extra money.
The more difficult it gets for those to keep up with the
engagement in the harbour district, the more likely a
new economy will emerge in Chamazi. If the resettled
population would have found a similar economy in
Chamazi as it is in Kurasini Ward, then the integration
would happen quicker and more frictionless. Because
this is not the case, the people have to create their
own economy, adapt their occupation to the economy
of the new place, or continue working in Kurasini Ward
under more difficult circumstances than before. All
three scenarios can be found within the project: Fatma,
a resettled mother, started to produce bricks for the
settlement buildings (Home. Int. 2013b). Others work
as builders in the settlement. This would not have been
possible, if the houses would be constructed by com34

panies from the building industry, because the money
paid to them would have been dropped out of the
communityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s money flow and therefore necessitates
a capital balancing: Either by redistribution of capital
within the settlement, by injecting capital of outsiders
like banks and funding organizations, or by an income
increase of the inhabitants who are working outside
of the settlement. A redistribution is not advisable,
because it would lead to an imbalance within the community, what produces social pressure. An increase of
the money the people earn outside their community is
very unlikely, because the resettlement made it harder
for them to keep up their business in the harbour than
it was before. The injection of outside capital by donations and bank loans would be the most practicable
option, but it would not be a sustainable one, because
it hinders the emergence and growth of a local economy. The inhabitants would remain dependent of the
fundings. It is ironical that the micro-economy of the
settlement benefits from the weak building industry of
Tanzania. Rose Liheta has established a small shop
in Chamazi, where she sells goods for the daily need
(Home. Int. 2013c). This would also not be possible, if
big discounters would be in the neighborhood. From

42

43

35

44

48

this it follows that the weak infrastructure of Chamazi

45

46

47

36

was an opportunity for the resettled people to create
their own infrastructure, which enables an inwardfocused circulation of capital that nurtures the settlement. On the contrary, the husband of Constansia
commutes on a daily basis to the harbour to work as a
painter, but he hopes to find work close to Chamasi in
the near future (Home. Int. 2013a).
It is noteworthy, that the settlement of Chamazi is not
connected to the city sewer, because it is too remote
from it (Ndezi 2009a:86). Hence, the inhabitants have
built a weed waste-water-processing-plant to treat the
sewage on a sustainable basis (Home. Int. 2013c).
The construction works of the settlements started in
March 2010 (Bachmayer 2012:10), but the high inflation rate in Tanzania (23%) stopped it. Nevertheless,
the people have started to live inside the unfinished
houses. In 2012 there has been only one complete
building (Bachmayer 2012:16). In this context, the
design concept which splits up the whole buildings into
smaller stages is clearly superior to standard building concepts, because it is more independent against
extrinsic influences.
8. â&#x20AC;&#x153;[...E]nsure that the affected families are resettled in acceptable
manner with little social disruption (Mero 2011:1).â&#x20AC;?
9. A bridge, which connects both bay banks was already planned
in 1988 to extend the port to the eastern bank of the bay (Mero

Fig. 44: The layout of a fully developed Type D building block.
Fig. 45: A visualisation of Type D’s first development stage.
Fig. 46: The second development stage encloses the inner courtyard, rendering it private.
Fig. 47: The final development stage.
Fig. 48: The layout of the market building. Notice the free space in
the centre and the cells - which can be divided on demand
- surrounding it.
Fig. 49: A Layout of the first stage of a Type D dwelling. It contains a
bathroom and a single sleeping / living room.
Fig. 50: The second development stage adjoins a separate bedroom to the dwelling.
Fig. 51: The final development stage adds another bedroom on the
opposite side of the dwelling.
Fig. 52: A visualisation of the first stage of a Type C building block.
The arrangement of the buildings forms a neighbourhood
with streetlike yards.
Fig. 53: The second development stage emphasises the linear
streetlike character.
Fig. 54: The final development stage breaks the linearity of the
arrangement. Compare the different accesses of the inner
courtyard with the Type C building block.

2011:2). Given that till today (2013) no bridge was built and due
to the fact that the bridging would have been a much more lucrative infrastructure development in 1988 than now – just connecting both banks for the sake of granting the resettled population
access to the harbour area – it is very unlikely to be built in the
next years at all.
10. 85% of the harbour inhabitants are working in the Informal Economy, which renders them dependent from the industry located
in the harbour area. By relocating them they lose their source of
income (Ndezi 2009:13-14). For example, the Informal Economy
includes: “Small petty business”, grocery commerce, secondhand trade, handcraft, carpenter (ibid.:5, Home. Int. 2013a).
11. Hawa Ramadhani, a tenant says that „...the resettlement of Kurasini has indeed affected our future plans. Myself, I am a widow
with five children and have always depended on small business
close to the harbour for my livelihood. With this eviction, I don‘t
know how I will survive with my children. The government needs
to help as well (Ndezi 2009a:83).“
12. Standard high-density plot size = 400m2
13. Water, sewage water, electricity, streets
14. The inhabitants are producing bricks on site by using simple
methods. To manufacture one brick costs USD 0.19 and it is sold
by USD 0.22. The machine costs USD 280 and can produce
between 300 and 500 pieces in 8h (Bachmayer 2012:12-13).
Consequently, such a machine could be paid off within 31 days.

49

50

51

52

53

54

37

Development Aid Structure
The participants are: Tanzania Federation of the Urban
Poor (TUFP), the Centre for Community Initiatives
(CCI), Homeless International, Temeke Municipality, National Housing and Building Research Agency,
and UN-HABITAT-SUF (Bachmayer 2012:7). TUFP
is part of the Slum Dwellers International (SDI), and
is together with the CCI the most important project
partner. The SDI is an international network of local
urban poor organizations that exchange ideas and
experiences about the development of their projects.
In practice, the experiences made by South African organizations were the starting decisive of TUFP for the
saving schemes in 2004. In 2009 there where already
50 saving schemes with a total value of USD 52,000
and 1,700 to 2,000 active members in Tanzania (Ndezi
2009a:80). The NPO CCI was founded in 2004, has a
staff of five people from different areas of expertise,15
and 5,000 members. It focuses on the development
of sustainable solutions for the “urban poor” (Ndezi
2009:11-12).
15. Engineers, architects, sociologist, urban planners and Accountants.

Relationship Development Aid and Space
Compared to the little funding, the development aid
has transformed the space strongly: Infrastructures,
buildings, and a local economy have been emerged on
an area in Chamazi, which has been barren land before. The growing inflation in Tanzania and the low portion of loan capital are decelerating the growth of the
settlement. But the small steps design concept – which
suits the context very well – made it possible that not
yet finished buildings are inhabitable. Furthermore the
residents can identify themselves with it and are proud
of what they have reached so far. If the design would
have followed common methods, then Chamazi would
be full of uninhabitable building shells.

38

39

I V: M a n g r o v e Affo resta ti on ,
Se n e g a l

55

Overview
Between 2006 and 2011 one of the world’s biggest
Mangroves afforestation programs took place in Senegal (Sall 2012: 2). The NGO Oceanium Dakar was able
to mobilize more than 190,000 people from over 400
villages in a participative process to take part in this
project (Oceanium-Dakar 2013). A basis for a 108km2
artificial landscape has been created (ibid., UNFCCCCDM 2012:16) which now may change Senegal’s
future land use extensively. The project was supported
at various points of time by different companies which
used the cooperation either for marketing reasons or
the trade with carbon-credits.
Mangroves and Human Habitat
Mangroves grow primarily in tropical and subtropical coast areas as those in Senegal, where in 2006
they covered a surface of 1,287km2 (ibid.:24). The
40

worldwide population however has decreased in the
last decades. From 1980 until 2006 Senegal has lost
403km2 Mangrove forest.2 Yet, they are very important
for Senegal’s ecosystem: They extract salt from the
sea water which during high tide floods the river deltas
and moves upcountry. A lower salt content makes
the cultivation of these regions possible (fig. 55).
The reasons for the great decrease are mainly manmade,3 however also result from exceptional climatic
phenomena: The drought in the 70ies and 80ies were
disastrous. Thereto comes a destructive farming and a
street development which is not appropriate for the environment.4 Solely in Casamance Delta 67,000 hectare
of Mangrove forest have disappeared since 1980 (Sall
2012:4) (fig. 56-57).
Additionally a global relation has been found between the loss of mangrove forests and an increasing
scarcity of resources in the affected areas (JG-Kairo
2001:383). This shortage increases poverty of those
who depend on agriculture: „When we plant the rice

now, it doesn‘t grow because there is so much salt in
the water (IRIN 2008)“. Not only the agriculture is suffering but also the water economy worries about the
waning biodiversity: „We sell fish, shrimp and oysters
in the market and can earn up to US$20 a day from
this, which greatly benefits our families[.] Now it is
difficult for fish-sellers [...] to earn even US$4 a day because there is so little fish left to sell (IRIN 2008).“ (fig.
58). This affects especially women, who are greatly
involved in the fisheries.
From an ecologically point of view, a difference must
be made between afforestation and reforestation.
Afforestation is some kind of restoration, where the
forest is not restored to its original state but rather to
a desired state. The aim of most afforestation projects
include restoring lost habitat, but also improving soil,
protecting coasts against erosion or making harvest
more efficient (JG-Kairo 2001: 383). In most cases
the latter concerns a change of habitat, which must
be regarded critically, as it changes an already working habitat into one which better fits human needs, but
also bears ecological risks in it (Erftemeijer 1999). On
the example of the afforestation of intertidal mudflat
land Paul Erftemeijer (ibid..) explains how a for global
processes important habitat has been transformed
under great efforts and with little chances for success
and therefore endangering a working ecosystem. John
Eichelsheim, project manager of IDEE-Casamance is
aware of this: „The more mangroves there are here,
the more fish, shrimp and oysters there will be to eat
and sell.“, but „Locals need to be very clear where and
how to plant each, otherwise it risks damaging the ecosystem.” (IRIN 2008). Most of the areas affected by the
mangrove afforestation program are degenerated mangrove forests and therefore not foreign to mangroves.
In general increasing the mangrove population is in
the interest of the affected people, but a “the more the
better”-approach poses a great risk on the long term.
Nevertheless, from an ecological point of view the
question should always be answered in the first place
why at the affected areas there is no natural growth
anymore, before concerning an re- or afforestation.

56

57

1. Before 1959 75% of the tropic coastal areas have been covered
by mangrove forests globally. Since 1983 its share has declined
to 50% (JG-Kairo 2001: 384).
2. 1980: 1690km2, 2006: 1287km2 mangrove forests (UNFCCCCDM 2012:24). This is a loss of 2% in 26 years and in average
16km2 per year.
3. Aquaculture such as shrimp farms present worldwide the greatest risks for mangrove forests. In Tanga and Ngomeni salines
have left deserted areas which are so salty that a reforestation

with mangroves is not possible anymore. In Zambezi (Mozambique) the growth of the cities and construction along the coastal
regions has led to a decline of mangroves (JG-Kairo 2001:384).
4. If dams are constructed for building streets, which divide rivers,
mutflats dry out and therefore mangroves loose their habitat.

Description of the Place
The affected region is near the coast and the river
deltas of Thies, Fatick, Kaloack in Sine Saloum and
Ziguinchor, Kolda in Casamance (UNFCCC-CDM
2012: 4-5). It is mainly rural (fig. 59-60), with small
settlements situated in greater distance to each other.
However, there are also a few small cities. The size
of the farmlands differs and primarily rice is cultivated.
The farmlands are big and connected or they are made
up of differently sized fragments. As agriculture plays
an important role, multiple settlements are grouped
around big rice fields. In general, farming takes up
much more area than the villages who cultivate them
(fig. 61).

59

Project Description

60

Settlement

l

Fig. 67-68
Farming
Farming

l

Afforestation
61

42

The aim of the project is to restore destroyed mangrove areas and afforest other regions. At the same
time, a part of the population should be trained, so
they become able to cultivate the mangrove forests in
a sustainable way (ibid.:3). The afforestation itself does
not generate any additional income, as the forest can
not be used to generate a profitable forestry. However,
the developers hope for a profit-bringing side effect:
The desalination of the sea water should make the soil
more profit-yielding for rice cultivation. Additionally, the
roots of the mangroves are a popular habitat for fish,
mussels, crustaceans and improves the soil, which
protects against erosion (ibid.:49, 51).5 As Mangroves
can store up to 90% CO2 of its mass (Sall 2012:4),
they can gain a commercial value through a carbon
trade agreement. This was a key argument when looking for investors, which we will see later on.
This development aid project is Senegalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first afforestation project, which has been developed together
by local communities, a local NGO (Oceanium Dakar)
and international experts (IUCN) (UNFCCC-CDM
2012:27). The knowledge of experts was very important for the project implementation, because the choice
of where the afforestation project takes place is very
difficult, as multiple criteria must be met for a maximum
of seedlings to survive. In Tanzania for example many
afforestation attempts failed, as the wrong mangrove
types were selected for over-salted and over-acidified

soils (JG-Kairo 2001:385).6 In 2009 missing technical
knowledge from Oceanium’s side led also to many
failures in afforestation. Only the financial support by
Danone Fund for Nature in 2009 made it possible to
involve IUCN in the project. It were responsible for the
selection of tree species and appropriate afforestation
areas (UNFCCC-CDM 2012:27). Oceanium Dakar
took care of supplying the infrastructure and took over
the coordination. Without it the population would have
never been able to implement an afforestation project
of this size. During the realization phase the population was greatly involved, which means that they took
part in the preselection of the areas and tree species
as well as they were paid for collecting the seeds and
planting seedlings (fig. 62) (ibid.:12, 54).
Although involving the population in the implementation of the afforestation project saves time and money
knowledge transfer is the key, as the success and
speed of the process is mainly dependent on how
much of the needed knowledge the population has
and how complex the workflow is. Therefor the population is trained in “planting techniques, management
techniques, and conservation protection measures”
by Oceanium (ibid.:16). The knowledge transfer is
mutual: Oceanium gains new knowledge through the
discussion with the population and their experience
which changes the procedures of the NGO (ibid.). The
participation of the population at the project allowed a
greater acceptance of the change of their habitat (JGKairo 2001:385). Some even say that it helped to bring
peace to the region of Casamance, which has been
affected in civil war (UNFCCC-CDM 2012:53). Within
three years more than 180,000 people have been
participating in the project (Oceanium-Dakar 2013).7
To achieve this, a region-wide and fast communication was essential for the mobilization and organization of the workforce. Solely in 2009 80,000 people in
322 villages had to be coordinated for three months
(ibid.). The only available long distance communication tool was the radio, which plays an important role
in Senegal’s society, because there are only radios
on the countryside. Oceanium invited once or twice
a week on five different radio stations, for 9 weeks in
a row influential Senegalese people for a discussion
in which they were talking about the importance of
the project and the significance of the Mangroves for
the region (UNFCCC-CDM 2012:14). A second communication tool was the cinéma-débat. It is a travelling cinema, that tours with multiple multimedia trucks
through the country (fig. 65). Two months before the
actual afforestation begins, it starts to elucidate the
population. Firstly, attention is attracted from the visited
community: For this a colorfully printed multimedia

62

63

64
Fig. 59: Satellite image of a rural settlement.
Fig. 60: A smaller settlement in the same region.
Fig. 61: A small settlement cultivating the adjacent rice fields. Notice
the ratio of the former and the latter. The white solid marks
an afforested area (fig. 67-68).
Fig. 62: Local participants planting the mangrove seedlings.
Fig. 63: A colorfully printed multimedia truck.
Fig. 64: A cinéma-débat screening.

43

truck (fig. 63) drives through the settlement or village,
playing music at high volume, and broadcasting messages (Rouviere 2009: 4:16 - 4:55). When enough
inhabitants have gathered together on a central place,
the open-air cinema starts (fig. 64). In this movie the
attention of the people is drawn to the problems of the
concerned areas nearby the village and the procedure
of an afforestation are shown. Afterwards, afforestation
techniques are explained. Finally there is a discussion and the participants are recruited (UNFCCC-CDM
2012:12-13).
The afforestation follows a simple structure: After
the afforestation zones have been selected, seeds of
existing mangrove forests are yielded. This paid work
is done mostly by women and increases their income.
When the seeds and workers arrive at the target area,
the actual afforestation begins. Thereby the workers
plant the seedlings in a matrix of 1x1m into the muddy
ground (Sall 2012: 3-4, Oceanium-Dakar n.d.) (fig. 66).
5. In Florida Mangrove afforestation is done in order to protect the
coasts against erosion (JG-Kairo 2001: 384).
6. Only little fruitful pioneer species would have been able to survive and improve the soil.
7. 2008: 32,500, 2009: 45,000, 2010: 110,000 people.

The Structure of the Development Aid
Besides the already mentioned project participants
Oceanium Dakar and IUCN, there are eight more known
partners: In 2008 Yves Rocher Foundation was supporting the project, in 2009 it was Insolites bâtisseurs and
the Danone fund for Nature. The latter made a Carbon
Trade Agreement with the local NGO Oceanium Dakar,
where the company saved approximately EUR 1.4MM
of CO2 taxes.8 Additionally, the company used this project for advertising (Rouviere 2009, Danone 2013, Hegarat 2011). Furthermore Evian, Fondation d’Entreprise
Voayageurs, Fondation Maria & Alain Phillippson, FIBA,
Fonds Français pour l’Envritonnement Mondial and
Kirène supported the project (Oceanium-Dakar n.d.:12).
8. During the agreement (2008-2037) 2,704t per year and in total
81,132.86t CO2 are bound (UNFCCC-CDM 2012:21-22). The
CO2 tax for French companies was EUR 17 per t CO2 in 2009
(Chrisafis 2009). This saves the company EUR 46,000 per year.

44

Fig. 65: A map representing the places where the afforestation and
the accompanying actions of the project took place. The
NGO Oceanium Dakar has its headquarter in Dakar, but
also established two regional project bases for the coordination of the execution. The red spots mark an afforestation
where we could not find any visual evidence of it’s success.
On the contrary, the yellow ones show afforestations with
found visual evidence (fig. 67-70). Both indicate by their
diameter the size of the afforestation, which were evaluated
by the official afforestation documentary (c.f. UNFCCCCDM 2012:59-83). The blue spots locate the places where
cinéma-débats took place. The four frames mark the places
which were analysed by us in detail. They were selected,
because the found visual evidence and the vicinity to
villages where cinéma-débats took place and rice fields
appeared to us more interesting than others. The frame
with the caption fig. 71-73 was also selected, because it
is a place where a natural afforestation took place, what
enables us to compare its spatial outcomes with the artificial
ones.

65

45

The Spatial Consequence
Although statistics foresee a mortality rate as high
as 75% for the seedlings, the afforestation leads to a
mangrove culture whose artificial origin can clearly be
differentiated from the natural landscape by the gridlike distribution of the seedlings and their similar size
resulting from being planted in the same year (fig. 6670). This provided between 2006 and 2011 the basis
for the development of an artificial forest of a minimum
size of 108km2.9 Should experts be right10 and mangroves are land-builders, then a part of the unused
intertidal mudflat could be directly used for agriculture
or buildings in the future.
Nevertheless, mangroves desalinate the sea water,
which moves country inwards during the high tides. It
is also assumed that besides the water quality also the
biodiversity will increase significantly (UNFCCC-CDM
2012:48, JG-Kairo 2001:386). This may lead to the
growth of the rural areas and slow down the migration
into cities. If the CO2 taxes are getting higher in the
industrial nations, the investment in mangrove forests
will also become more lucrative for other companies
which again would speed up the mangrove afforestation. Moreover, if the CO2 tax laws are laid down in
a way that makes it possible to rent CO2 through a
preservation agreement, then landscape becomes a
trading good.
If we look at fallow grounds cultivated beforehand
where mangrove afforestation took place naturally (fig.
71-73), a direct relationship between the cultivation
of the changed landscape and the distribution of the
mangroves can be observed: The afforestation takes
place quicker in the man-made irrigation ditches of the
rice fields than in the rice fields themselves. Therefore,
the natural growth of the mangroves upon the artificial
landscape gives reference to its earlier usage even
decades later and therefore is a Third Landscape
(Clement 2010).
9. 2008: 149.18ha (Oceanium-Dakar 2013), 2009: 1,699.88ha
(UNFCCC-CDM 2012:16), 2010: 5,000ha, 2011: 4,000ha
(Oceanium-Dakar 2013).
10. Mangroves weaken the tidal energy and the eroded material is
partially retained by their roots what hardens the soil (JG-Kairo
2001:384-385, UNFCCC-CDM 2012:49, 51), but experts donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t
agree upon whether or not they contribute to the yield of land
(Erftemeijer 1999:2-3).

46

66

67

68
Fig. 66: The 1x1m matrix of planted mangrove trees emphasise
their artificial origin.
Fig. 67: A former rice field next to the settlement of figure 61 in May
2004.
Fig. 68: The same rice field in April 2012.
Fig. 69: A satellite image of an afforested area where we illustrate
the directions of the planted tree matrix.
Fig. 70: An afforested area close to the sea with a clearly recognizable matrix.

69

70

47

71

72

48

Discussion on the Relation Between Development Aid and Space
The development aid project directly influenced the
effects on the landscape. The more financial resources
are available, the faster artificial mangrove forests are
developed. If in addition, they gain continuously value
through the carbon trade agreement for the population
or the landowners, the transformation of the landscape
accelerates even more. As mentioned, there are biologists who regard these fast afforestation programs
rather critically as they can destroy working habitats
like intertidal mudflats which are vital for the fishing industry and important food sources for migrating birds.

73
Fig. 71: A large area with former rice fields in April 2003. There are
hardly any mangroves outside the areas outlined by the
dashed line. The rice fields are outlined by a black solid line.
Fig. 72: The same area after years of natural afforestation in April
2012. Notice the strange artificial growth patterns of the
emerged mangroves.
Fig. 73: A close-up of the area indicates the stronger growth of the
mangroves inside the irrigation canals between the rice
fields. Therefore we could say, that the mangroves utilise
the artificial landscape for their spreading, but the mangroves donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do it on conscious. So it is rather more a place,
where the chances of survival are higher or where the
seedlings get stuck. Nevertheless, more new mangroves
are found within canals than on plain rice fields. Therefore
the mangroves emphasise the artificiality of the landscape
they overgrow.

49

V: Da m D e v e l op men t
in M e r o w e , S ud a n

74

Overview
The Merowe Dam was constructed between 2002 and
2009 in Southern Sudan. Currently it is the largest
of its kind in Africa (Carroll 2011:2, ECCHR 2010:1).
Due to the size of the overall development, it has a
huge impact on the local landscape, the settlement
structure, and the life of 60,000 Sudanese people.1 But
despite it’s immense spatial and social effects, it made
a very important contribution to the electrification of the
country by the duplication of it’s overall power production.2 China played a major role in the development aid
process, because it is the second largest investor and
it’s companies were the most important contractors
during the construction.
1. The actual number of the affected people is uncertain: ECCHR
(2010:1) estimates about 38,000 to 78,000, Failer (2011:15)
speaks about 70,000 and Carroll (2011:2) mentions about
60,000 people. Therefore we suggest to estimate the size of the
affected people to 60,000.

50

2. In 2010 the dam produced 1,250MW, what equals to 60% of the
power consumption of the Sudan (Failer 2011:10).

Description of the Region
The Merowe Dam impounds the Nile, which runs
through the Sudan to Egypt where it joins the Mediterranean Sea (fig. 75). In Egypt it becomes a large delta.
It’s headwaters are the White Nile,the Blue Nile, and
the Atbara River.3 The floodplains along the river form
very fertile areas and are therefore used for agriculture. Because of that it was possible for tribes to settle
in otherwise deserted regions like the Sahara.
Despite two small towns - Merowe and Karima - the
region is very rural. There are a lot of small villages
and settlements, which align to the course of the Nile,
and therefore form on both sides of it a stretched
parallel settlement zone (fig. 78). Because the vicinity of the river is essential for surviving in hot and arid

Fig. 74: The completed Merowe Dam with its building
site equipment in 2009.
Fig. 75: The map represents the course of the river
Nile, which has its headwater in Ethiopia and
in the Victoria Lake. It also shows similiar dam
projects like the completed Aswan Dam in
Egypt and the future Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. The huge border-crossing lake to
the south of the Aswan Dam is Africaâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s largest
artificial lake.

75

51

Granary

Ro

ad

76

areas like these,4 the settlement zone is narrow and
never widens more than absolute necessary. Beside
this, the people donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have the resources to build large
branched irrigation canals or water pipes to fertilise the
back country.5 The natural branches of the Nile created
several small and large islands which are inhabited
(fig. 78, 83). The houses are adjacent to the floodplains and are one storey high court yard houses with
2 to 6 rooms (fig. 76) (Sayed 2007:34). The court yard
is fortified by an one storey high wall (fig. 77, 91-92)
to protect livestock from predators. The buildings are
made of clay. Because the materials are autochthonous the residents extend or transform the building on
demand to tailor it to their needs. The majority of the
inhabitants is engaged in agriculture or trading (ibid:23,
ECCHR 2010:1). Granaries are very important buildings within the towns (fig. 76), because the harvest
fluctuates during the year. There is trading between
the villages and the towns (Sayed 2007:34), but the
trading routes are unpaved dirt roads (fig. 76). Only offroad vehicles are able to travel between the towns and
the villages. An average trip to one of the towns, where
the public administration, medical supply and schools
are, takes up to three hours (ibid.).
The missing infrastructure and the fact that the towns
were not able to create a good labour market were the
main reasons which resulted in the decline of urban
population in the region: Before the creation of the
dam, Merowe was in a desolate condition. Most of the
people found the city â&#x20AC;&#x153;disgustingâ&#x20AC;?, and therefore rejected to live there (ibid.:23-24). The demand for paved
52

77

78

Fig. 76: An autochthonous settlement before the creation of the
reservoir. They are connected with each other by unpaved
dirt roads. Therefore off-road vehicles are needed to manage the transport. The houses are mainly one storey high and
surrounded by walls to protect the livestock from predators
during the night. Notice the granary, where the harvested food
is stored.
Fig. 77: A detail of one of those walled estates.
Fig. 78: The map displays a section of the course of the river Nile
where the Merowe Dam has the most impact on space and
landscape. The blue solid represents the former course of
the river. The blue outlines the new course with the emerged
reservoir to the north of the dam. Notice the evenly allocated
existing settlements along both sides of the river, the sunken
ones within the reservoirs, and the newly developed ones
nearby existing ones or the ones, which emerged in totally new
areas. Also mind the developed power grid, which supplies
other places of the country with the produced power of the dam
(Dongola to the nothwest, Karthoum to the south, Altbara to
the west, and Port Sudan at the Red Sea (africa500-Pseudo
2007)).

53

79

streets, secure water, and electricity supply was far
away from being fulfilled by the public administration.
The unemployment rate was high and some houses
were not occupied since more than 30 years. Just one
single public autobus was connecting Merowe and
Karima with other regions of the country once a day,
and a travel to the federal capital took 12 hours (Sayed
2007:23-24).
In sum the situation of the region was defined by an
underdeveloped infrastructure, shrinking and declining
cities, and a predominant rural settlement structure aligned parallel to the Nile and separated randomly from
each other by sinks and hills.
3. The White Nile has its headwaters in the Victoria Lake. The Blue
Nile and the Atbara River have their origin in Ethiopia
4. The people collect the water for drinking and usage untreated
from the Nile (Sayed 2007:36).
5. The lack of affordable electricity made it impossible to run pumping stations. But there were occasional diesel generators, which
operated for some hours a day to run refrigerators in shops
(ibid.:35).

Description of the Project
The main reason for the development of the dam is the
electrification of the country. Regarding this, the irrigation and flooding control capabilities of the dam, although it’s capacity is large enough to irrigate 380,000
hectare of farmland (Failer 2011:10),6 are of lesser
importance (Sayed 2007:14). The reservoir of the
Merowe Dam floods an area of about 500km2 (fig. 1,
80) and therefore creates the second largest industrial
lake of Africa.7 The reservoir and the accompanying
54

arrangements directly influence an area of 6,364km2
(ECCHR 2010:1).8
Currently, two big dams are located at the Nile: the
Aswan Dam in Egypt and the Merowe Dam, but Ethiopia is going to build the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance
Dam on one of the headwaters of the Nile (fig. 75). It
is going to be four times larger than the Merowe Dam
and international observers call it to become “Africa’s
most destructive dam project” (Carroll 2011:3). Furthermore 90% of the water allotment rights for the
River Nile are divided up on Egypt and the Sudan by
a treaty between them (ibid.).9 Due to the increased
interest of Ethiopia in the usage of one of the Niles
headwaters it becomes obvious that this could lead to
huge disadvantages for Sudan and Egypt (fig. 75).10
But there would have been alternatives for the Sudan,
one of the hottest countries in Africa: Solar energy, an
independent way of power production with much less
impact on landscape and ecology than dams. From a
technological point of view it also would not had made
a big difference, because the Sudan was as dependent
from foreign countries and companies during the development of the Merowe Dam, as it would have been
by developing a solar power plant. Only the question
of how to store the power for peak times would have
been left to solve. Comparing the risks with the mentioned possibilities of alternative energy production
methods, the Sudan’s decision to produce energy by
water power appears shortsighted.
6. 8.3MM m3 of water.
7. The biggest one is the Aswan Reservoir. That is the huge
boarder-crossing lake next to the Merowe Reservoir on fig. 75.
8. A presidential decree expropriates 6,364km2 for the purpose of
the Merowe Dam project in 2002 (ECCHR 2010:1).

80

River development
RIVER DEVELOPMENT

A0 1:500.000

1:25 Mio
Water

9. Ethiopia was no contract partner during the negotiation in 1959,
and therefore is not bound legally to the contract (Swain 2002).
10. Despite former disputes between Sudan, Egypt, and Ethiopia
about the water allocation of the Nile, Sudanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s recent politics
shifted away from Egypt towards a pro Ethiopia politic, expecting benefits from Ethiopiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Dam project (Young 2013, Malone
2013).

Fig. 79: The new reservoir seen from the Dam.
Fig. 80: A map that compares the former and the current river
course. Notice the size of the reservoir (500km2) compared
to the the former course and compare the size and amount
of the (white) islands before and after the emerging of the
reservoir. The upstream area of the dam is, as usual, transformed much larger than the downstream area.

55

81

Spatial Impact
The accompanying projects enhanced the infrastructure of the region in order to speed up the construction process of the dam: To get important foreign
contractors quickly to the building site, the inner state
airport in Merowe was demolished and the Merowe
International Airport was built. Existing dirt roads have
been tarred and new highways and bridges connecting Merowe with important places of the country have
been constructed.11 These infrastructure upgrades, the
need for getting people quickly to the working sites of
the dam, and the creation of dam related jobs led to
a growing transport service branch in Merowe (Sayed
2007:58): We mentioned in section Description of the
Region that there was only one autobus connecting
Merowe with the surrounding areas and the state capitol, but since 2007 additional private buses and vans
are interconnecting the region (ibid.:25). Furthermore a
building material production plant (fig. 74), a train station, and a workers settlement has been established
next to the dam. The workers settlement, also called
The Dam City, has a size of 25 hectare and consists of
70 Houses and a Hotel â&#x20AC;&#x201C; both occupied by consultants
and workers during the dam construction â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a hospital,
56

a sports club, a mosque, a water treatment plant, and
administration buildings (ibid.:15).
The creation of the reservoir destroyed traditional
farmland which adjoined the Nile and was spreading
out along it, but it also created artificial farmland on the
downstream of the Nile (fig. 82). In this case artificial
means that the farmland is rather arranged along manmade irrigation lines than following the natural course
of the river. This led to the extension of farmland and
settlements next to existing settlements (fig. 82A,B),
but also to the creation of new farmland and settlements in complete barren land (fig. 82C).
Large-scale projects like this cause internal migrations if large parts of the population become seasonal
labourer. If those find the conditions of the working
place better than in their place of origin, then they start
to settle down at the new place and cut the bounds of
their former home. A good example for this process is
the Aljazeera Project, also located in Sudan: It is Sudanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest agriculture project with a total size of MM
2 hectare. From 1973 to 74 336,000 seasonal labourer
were employed to collect cotton. They settled down at
Aljazeera later (ibid.:17-18). Likewise the rising labour

82B
82A

82

Settlements 1:200.000
Water
Canal
Farm Land

Fig. 81: The downstream area with the settlements, which emerged
because of the dam construction (red spots). The area
outlined by a dashed line marks the area of figure 82.
Fig. 82: A map, that focuses on the transformation of the landscape
and the settlements on the downstream area of the dam.
The displayed irrigation canals (blue lines) have been mainly developed during the dam construction. They became
possible, because the dam supplies the needed electricity
for the water pumps and it also provides the water for the
irrigation canals by a second sluice used for irrigation and
flood control.
Fig. 82A: In the town to the north of Merowe, the barren land was

82C

irrigated by the construction of water canals on the northern
river bank, and former mud roads have been tarred or
newly constructed. Furthermore the town expanded further
into the barren land to the west. From top to bottom: 2004,
2012.
Fig. 82B: Merowe also got a huge boost by the construction of the
dam: An airport, irrigation canals and a lot of housing have
been built. From top to bottom: 2004, 2012.
Fig. 82C: A huge artificially irrigated farmland emerged in the barren
land. Notice the irrigation circles in the southwest and the
settlements arranged around the farmland. From top to bottom: 2004, 2009.

57

market led to an internal migration during the construction of the Merowe Dam. The towns, and in particular
Merowe benefitted from this: The market value of the
city property before and after the dam construction
significantly increased. Prior the creation of the dam
the value of town properties was very low, because
there was in general little demand for it. But in 2003
the value starts to rise rapidly (fig. 84). Within the following 7 years the value increased up to 60 times and
the rents by 10 times (Sayed 207:26-28).12
Migration can be further divided into an autonomous migration and into a forced migration, where the
people of the former can migrate and the people of
the latter have to migrate. 90% of the area flooded by
the reservoir is desert (fig. 83) (Failer 2010:10), and
therefore it affected â&#x20AC;&#x153;onlyâ&#x20AC;? 60,000 inhabitants. They
deal differently with the transformation of their habitat:
Some cooperate with the government and therefore
were moved to new settlements, and others opposed
it, what led to killings during protests (EHCCR 2010:2,
Carroll 2011:2). Furthermore the rising water lavel of
the reservoir transformed space and landscape to
that extend that settlements sank (fig. 83, 83B, 85)
or were divided into islands (fig. 83D, 88, 90). Some
islands are still occupied and connected by simple
bridges, small earth dams, or ferries. Those inhabitants that have left their settlements have founded new
unplanned settlements along the new banks of the reservoir, or have been sent to planned prototype settlements by the government. Unplanned settlements
always emerged nearby the old settlements, whereas
the planned ones were often founded far away from
the origin of the migrating population. The government
founded fifteen resettlement areas, with occupying a
total area of 624km2 (Failer 2011:16). Seven of them
are situated in Northern and eight in Southern Sudan
(DIU 2011).13
But founding settlements along banks of a reservoir
with a flat basin is risky, because the location of the
bank chiefly depends on the amount of water stored
in the reservoir and therefore also depends on the
quantity of water extracted by the hydro power and
irrigation facilities. Prior to the dam construction the
water level changed slowly and the phases were fairly
predictable for the inhabitants themselves. Now the
change is controlled by the operators of the dam and
also happens rapidly. This fluctuation can easily be
observed at one of the new reservoir bank settlements:
If the riverside is as flat as it is here, then a small water
level change leads to a massive shift of the shore line.
The inhabitants loose their direct access to water (fig.
83C, 86-87, 89).
The biggest long-term danger of the project is an
58

Fig. 83: A map, that focuses on the transformation of the landscape and the settlements in the upstream area of the
dam. Notice the sunken settlements and the emerged
ones, espacially those that were founded on the new
islands or reservoir bank to the northeast of the map.
Fig. 83A: Besides the emerging reservoir the construciton of the
dam itself also transformed the landscape enormously.
From top to bottom: 2003 (prior the construction), 2006,
2011.
Fig. 83B: These two settlements sunk completly. From top to bottom: 2003, 2011.

A0 1:25Mio
83A

Dam Construction

Settlements 1:200.000
Water
existing Settlements
demolished
developed
Power Grid

A0 SETTLEMENTS
1:500.000

83

Fig. 83C: Some people which turned homeless by the creation of
the reservoir, migrated to the new bank of it. Although the
position of it is unstable what turned the area waterless
the year after. From top to bottom: 2002, 2010, 2011.
Fig. 83D: Here, a bigger island was transformed into a smaller
one. The inhabitants moved further inland. Some of their
houses disappeared in the floods. From top to bottom:
2002, 2010.
Fig. 84: The market value of city properties in Merowe. It rises
sharply after the construction of the dam begins.

MM 3
Dam Project Launch
2
1
MM 0

84

2003

2005

2007

no settlement data

no settlement data

SHIFT
83D
A0 RIVERBANK
(2002, 2010)

SUNKEN SETTLEMENT
83B
A0
(2003, 2011)

SHIFT
83C
A0 RIVERBANK
(2002, 2010, 2011)

59

inappropriate dealing with the people turned homeless
by the construction of the dam: For example the construction of the Egyptian Aswan Dam in 1964 has led
to the resettlement of Nubian tribes within the Sudan.
But the resettlement area wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t similar to their former
habitat, and therefore incapable to suit their lifestyle
and needs. The new situation was so unbearable
for them that they have left it 40 years later (Sayed
2007:57). A strong unplanned internal migration can
stress a country, because it can cause growing Informal Settlements, and therefore contribute to the
uncontrolled growth of cities.
The transformation of the landscape and the settlements by the dam happened incremental: 2006 a flood
destroyed and damaged several upriver settlements,
because the main branch of the Nile was blocked by
construction works. 2,740 families were affected by
this. Because the authorities didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t forewarned the
affected people the damage was tremendous high:
700 houses have been destroyed and 380 have been
severe damaged. Farmland of 12 villages has been
flooded and 12,000 pieces of farm animals have
been killed. Their dead bodies were floating on the
Nile and therefore increased the risk of infections for
the population. Experts estimate the damage to USD
6.2MM. In 2008 further 15,000 people turned homeless, 22 villages have been damaged or destroyed,14
and 170,000 pieces of farm animals have been killed
(ECCHR 2010:3).
Comparing the structure of the former autochthonous
settlements with the one of the new planned prototype
settlements shows great differences: The houses are
allocated by a simple geometric grid. This became possible, because man-made irrigation canals and water
pipes give the settlements independence from the river
and therefore they were mainly founded on the flat area
which is further away from the river basin. The new
buildings still use some of the former formal language
like the fortified court yard, but the size per household
has been decreased a lot (fig. 91-94). Furthermore
the uniformal design lacks to satisfy the needs of the
residents, because they were used to tailor their houses
to their needs (Sayed 2007:59-60). Now, because
industrial materials have replaced the autochthonous
ones (ibid. 2007:45), it became nearly impossible for the
residents to match the buildings towards their needs by
themselves. For most of the adjustments a skilled craftsman is needed. Compared with the industrial buildings
the clay buildings had a higher flexibility, because it only
needed low technology, the people had direct access
to the material, and foremost the whole construction
process was, due to the possibility of self-made, more
flexible and more affordable than industrial buildings.
60

85

86

87

88

89

90
Fig. 85: A map that illustrates the sinking of the settlements of figure 83B.
Fig. 86: The emerged reservoir bank and the buildings
developed by the migrants of figure 83C in
2010.

Fig. 87: The dissapeared reservoir bank in 2011.
Fig. 88: The migration that is happening on the transformed island of figure 83D in 2010.
Fig. 89: A closeup sattelite image of figure 83C in 2010.
Fig. 90: A closeup sattelite image of figure 83D in 2010.

61

Settlement

Farming
Water

Farming

Water

Farming

91

Besides this, the quality of the industrial buildings is so
low that some of them need renovation after just two
years. Even though it is easier to supply a compact
settlement structure with water, electricity, medicine,
education, and culture, than a stretched linear settlements, they are still poorly supplied: There is neither a
waste collection (Sayed 2007:60) nor enough drinking
water of good quality (ibid.:54-55).15 The overall sanitary
situation has been improved only moderately: A majority
of the houses still use pit latrines (ibid.:61).
11. Four bridges, a 16km long rail road branch, and 646km streets
have been built which are establishing the following connections: Merowe - Dam - Shiryan Alshimal Highway, Dam - Atbara
- Port of Sudan, Dam - Karima - Dongola (state capital) (Sayed
2007:15-16).
12. It raised from 50,000 to 400,000 Sudanese Pounds / month.
13. Goshabi-Abu Dom, Wadi Muqaddam, Abu Hamed, Wadi Mukarab
(Geus 2003:33) and New Amri (Failer 2011:16), as well as Wadi

92

62

Almugadam, the 60,000 hectare large Almukabrab/Kaheila East
(southeast of Aldamer) and the 35,000 hectare large New Alhamdab (former El-Multaga, south of Aldaba) (Sayed 2007:37, 43, 49).
14. Among the destroyed or damaged buildings were 20 schools, 20
medical care facilities and several mosques (ECCHR 2010:4).
15. Some settlements have only for three hours a day access to
drinking water, which is so foul that drinking it leads to diarrhea
(Sayed 2007:55).

nt

ing
rm

Fa

Wa
te

r

me
ttle
Se

93
Fig. 91: A sattelite image of one of the sunken autochthonous settlements (fig. 83B, 85). It has grown step by step and its buildings were adjacent to the farmland. The latter was next to
the river which was flooded from time to time and therefore
keept futile. The Buildings were arranged to each other and
the landscape to form a compact settlement with several
free squares on wich trading took place.
Fig. 92: A figure ground plan of the settlement in figure 91. Every
estate is walled and has several buildings on it. Both have
various shapes and sizes, reflecting an utilitarian design
approach.
Fig. 93: A sattelite image of one of the planned prototype settlements in the developed artificially irrigated farmland area.
It is aligned to a grid and seperated of the farmland by an
irrigation canal or tarred streets. Although the settlement is
nearby the farmland, its bulidings are not aligned to it, but
rather to its internal grid. This is odd, because the former is
its main source of income.
Fig. 94: A figure ground plan of the planned prototype settlement
of figure 93. Apart from the comunity buildings, all estates
and buildings are of the same size and shape, reflecting an
uniform design approach which lacks in adaptability. Notice
that the size of an estate and the occupying buildings are
much smaller compared to the autochonous settlements of
figure 92.

94

63

Development Aid Structure
The majority of the total costs of the dam project
(USD 1.8Bn) are paid by foreign investors (fig. 3, 7),
where Chinas Exim Bank16 contributed the biggest
share (USD 519MM) (Carroll 2011:2). This contribution is a development aid loan (Nour 2010:16), which
has a high return of the investment, because a lot of
the construction work is done by Chinese companies
(fig. 95). China’s development aid is in general focusing on the infrastructure sector.17 Some critics say it
aims mostly at accelerating the exploitation of Africa’s
resources to supply Chinas growing industry (Carroll
2011:1). At present the Chinese company Sinohydro
is the worlds largest dam construction company, even
though Chinese companies entered the sector very
late (Int. Rivers 2012:4-5).18 A reason for its success is
the growing public criticism against large dam developments in the Western world.19 Traditional investors like
the World Bank are leaving the business because of
this and therefore Chinas Exim Bank became a major
financier of large dam developments (ibid.:3-5).
But we have to admit that Chinese companies have
to act within a field of difficult circumstances, because
most countries which are going to develop large dam
projects like these are heavily corrupted and are
lacking in environmental protection and human rights
agreements. It is hard for them to enforce international
standards which don’t match with the ones of the
project country, because on the one hand they don’t
want to interfere with politics, according to Chinese
“policy of non-interference” (Carroll 2011:1), and on
the other hand are compelled by the Chinese foreign
ministry to stick to the laws of the project country (Int.
Rivers 2012:5, 20-21). Even European companies
are breaking international conventions: The German
company Lahmeyer International, which was commissioned to do the feasibility studies in 2000 and all engineering services concerning the construction of the
Merowe Dam in 2002 (Failer 2011:11), was accused
by ECCHR for the contribution in violating several
international recognized human rights.20 The reason
why international operating companies are violating
internationally acknowledged conventions without
punishment is mainly due to issues of the Extraterritorial Jurisdiction.21 It is dealing with the question if and
how the country where the company is based, should
ensure the abidance of its laws by the company within
a foreign country.
Besides that, it is noteworthy that Chinese companies have won several invitation for bids of later Sudanese dam and infrastructure projects. Either this is
an argument for a high competitive power of Chinese
companies, or – because most of the projects are co64

$

95

Fig. 95: A cash flow diagram representing who funded how much
by the size of the flag and who received how much by the
thickness of the arrow. Mind that Chinese state owned
companies were the main contractors during the development process and therefore received USD 1,277MM (Failer
2011:11, Nour 2010:15-17), what is a big share of the total
fundings of USD 1,950MM (fig. 7). The France company
Alstom received USD 372MM for the electro-mechanical
equipment of the dam (Failer 2011:11, ECCHR 2010:1) and
the Germain Lahmeyer International was commissioned to
do the feasibility studies and all engineering services.

funded by the Chinese Exim Bank22 – is an indication
of a competitive distortion by the Sudanese government in favor for Chinese companies.23
16. Export Import Bank.
17. Chinese investments in Sudan in descending order of their total
funding: Electricity, Water and Irrigation, Refinery, Agriculture,
Roads and Bridges. China gave USD 3.4Bn of development aid
to the Sudan between 1997 and 2008. 83% of the investments
were infrastructure projects (Nour 2010:14, 16).
18. 308 Chinese dam projects were recorded in 2012. 85 of them
were in Africa (Int. Rivers 2012:4).
19. Some large dams with severe social and ecological impacts:
Merowe Dam, Gibe III in Ethiopia, Bakun Dam in Malaysia
(ibid.:5).
20. Lahmeyer International created an Environmental Assessment
Report in 2000 where possible social and ecological dangers
have to be documented. Even though it stated the lack of a
resettlement scheme for the affected population and several
organizations warned of forced evictions (Corner House,
International Rivers Network, Society for Threatened Peoples),
Lahmeyer International gave clearance to the construction works
six months later.
21. Companies often have a large political power when they operate
within countries with weak national economies and a poorly
shaped law framework. John Ruggie, the former United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Business
and Human Rights, created a Responsibility Framework for
companies called “protect, respect and remedy-framework”,
which received overwhelming international recognition (ECCHR
2010:7-8). He outlines the problem of Extraterritorial Jurisdiction as following: „What message should home countries send
the victims of corporate-related human rights abuses in those
situations? Sorry? Good luck? Or that, at a minimum, we will
work harder to ensure that companies based in our jurisdictions do not contribute to the human rights abuses that so often
accompany such conflicts, and to help remedy them when they
do occur? Surely the last is preferable. (...) And so we have the
oddity of home states promoting investments abroad—extraterritorially, if you will—often in conflict affected regions where
bad things are known to happen, but not requiring adequate due
diligence from companies because doing so may be perceived
as exercising extra-territorial jurisdiction. This status quo does
no favors to victims of corporate-related human rights abuse; to

Relationship Development Aid and Space
The social and ecological problems that are occurring
during the construction of a dam of such enormous
dimensions repelled traditional investors. After decades the Sudan was finally able to convince Chinese
and Arabic investors willing to give development aid.
Chinas Exim Bank provided the biggest part of the
foreign capital to the undertaking, and furthermore Chinese companies have won numerous invitation for bids
of the construction parts and accompanying projects.
Due to the significant part China played in the funding
and constructing process, we are able to argue that
the development aid project would never had become
into existence without China. Without its capital and its
know-how it would never had come to the forced resettlement of the inhabitants and the severe destruction of
the fertile Nile River basin. But there are also benefits:
Small towns like Merowe grew due to the economic
growth of the region. The infrastructure was improved
and extended a lot. The building of a power grid made
it possible to pump the water through wide ranging,
branched irrigation canals and to create new uniformal
settlements in the barren lands. The power production of the country has doubled. The settlement area
along the fertile river bank of the Nile was reduced and
constructed anew as compact point settlements in the
artificially irrigated barren land. Alas the quality of the
new buildings is lower as the former autochthonous
ones and even the predicted better supply of the population isn’t as good as expected.

host governments that may lack the capacity for dealing with the
consequences; to companies that may face operational disruptions or find themselves in an Alien Tort Statute suit for the next
decade; or to the home country itself, whose own reputation is
on the line (Ruggie 2009:5-6)”.
22. Synohydro is a state-owned-enterprise (Int. Rivers 2012:4).
23. Chinese companies won additional invitation for bids of infrastructure projects in Sudan: Raising of Roseires Dam (2008,

65

V I : Su m m a r y

In all examples evidence had been found to prove that
development aid can have a direct impact on space
and landscape. This impact can be small-scale (cf.
chapter II) or large-scale (cf. chapter II, IV, V). The
transformation of the existing structure can be alien (cf.
II, III, V) or subtle (cf. IV). Landscape and space can
be transformed rapid (cf. V) or continuously (cf. IV).
The structure of development aid influences how the
region and the affected people are dealt with: There
were three projects with a top-down approach, each of
them varying in degree, and one bottom-up approach.
The top-down methods range from an autocrat (cf.
V) to a consensus oriented leadership style (cf. IV).
Consequently the population had a different level of
influence on the spatial change in each project: When
the approach was very autocratic, such as in the dam
construction project in Merowe (cf. V), where the goals
and procedures were clearly defined by the government, and only companies were participating in the implementation, the majority of the population had hardly
any influence on the spatial change. A particular example of this is shown by the failure of public protests
against the project (EHCCR 2010:2, Carroll 2011:2). In
the Informal Settlement upgrade project in Ghana (cf.
II) there were discussions with the population. However their opinion was weighed much less than the opinion of participating organizations. Therefore, they had
little influence on the outcome of the spatial change.
In Senegal (cf. IV) a consensus oriented top-down approach was used, and the affected people were partly
able to influence the project on several levels: They
could refuse the Carbon-Trade-Agreement (UNFCCCCDM 2012:17) or hinder cooperation during the implementation of the project. Furthermore, the inhabitants
helped to preselect the afforestation areas, and their
experience had an impact on the procedures of the
66

NGO Oceanium Dakar (UNFCCC-CDM 2012:54).
In Tanzania (cf. III) a bottom-up approach was used,
where the goals were defined and modified in cooperation with NGOs and in accordance with the affected
people. Companies were responsible for the execution
of the tasks, but the greater part of the task was done
by the people themselves. They could influence the
spatial change indirectly by finding an accord with the
NGO and directly by working on the project (Home. Int.
2013a, Home. Int. 2013b, Home. Int. 2013c).
If we consider the spatial environment in which the
development aid project took place as a pattern, and
the projects as a change of its structure, we can define
four different structural changes: Firstly, in Senegal
(cf. IV) a huge onedimensional transformation of
landscape happened within a very short timeframe. A
transformed pattern emerged where its parts became
homogeneous to their environment (fig. 96). The origin
of the transformation is obviously artificial. There is
a break between the existing and the new which can
only be identified by the alien-like appearance of the
structure: the symmetric arrangement and uniform
growth of the trees. The individual parts of the new
structure resemble the old one. Secondly, the Informal
Settlement upgrade project in Ghana (cf. II) formalized little parts of an urban informal district within a few
years. The spatial appearance is heterogeneous. The
buildings are characterised according to their typology (closed, multi-storey, solitary - semi-open, singlestorey, compounded), materiality (industrial reinforced
concrete construction - creatively connecting available
materials) and their alignment to the environment (forecourt - patio) like an alien element with a repertoire of
single parts distinguished from an existing environment
(fig. 97). Thirdly, in Tanzania (cf. III) the development
aid project has led to a large, slow, and multidimen-

Fig. 96: The pattern representing the spatial outcome of the mangrove afforestation development aid project in Senegal of
chapter IV. Notice how the regular arrangement of the spots
distinguishes from the irregular arrangement of the naturally
grown mangrove trees.
Fig. 97: The pattern of the Informal Settlement upgrade in Accra,
Ghana of chapter II. The upgrade building is alien to its
environment and therefore symbolised by a star.
Fig. 98: The one of the informal resettlement project in Daressalaam, Tanzania of chapter III. Mind the different layers of the
transformation: The lines represent the streets, which were
constructed within a year and provided the framework for
the further development. The buildings are not alien to their
envirionment, but their regular arangement is.
Fig. 99: The pattern displaying the spatial transformation of the Merowe Dam development aid project in Sudan of chapter V.
The existing settlements are represented by the dots aligned on both sides of the line, which represents the river Nile
course. The big bubble in the middle broke the continuous
settlement-river-line. The dam is represented as a big star
and the planned prototype settlements, which are also alien
to this envirionment, are as well stars. Furthermore the new
irrigated areas are pushed away from the natural course
of the river and therefore established new furtile areas in
uncommon places.

sional transformation of landscape and settlement
structure. Regarding the basic infrastructure which
has been developed quickly, the settlement areas are
changing ever more slowly. The spatial appearance
of the pattern differs from the existing environment,
but the repertoire of the single parts is like the one of
the environment (fig. 98). Fourthly, in Sudan (cf. V) a
huge, rapid, and multidimensional transformation of
landscape and settlement structure has taken place.
The spatial appearance of this transformation differs
greatly from its environment. It is like a big alien element with its own repertoire of single parts embedded
in the existing pattern (fig. 99). The emerged settlements differ in their structure (orthogonal matrix - free
arrangement), materiality (industrial - autochthonous)
and their alignment to the environment (remote and
mostly isolated - tangible linear) from the destroyed
and existing settlements. Moreover, totally new nonlocal infrastructures such as tarred streets, high-voltage
power lines, and the dam itself have emerged.
If we compare the structure of the development aid
with the effects on space, we find that the type of development aid has an influence on how space is transformed. Looking at the autocrat top-down approach of
the Merowe-project, we notice that through the absolute leadership style a huge area has been enormously

Senegal
96

Ghana
97

Tanzania
98

Sudan

99

67

transformed in a short period of time without the
adoption of autochthonous structures or conventions.
A tabula-rasa par excellence. Apart from the difference
in size, the slum revaluation in Ghana can be put into
the same category. The bottom-up approach in Tanzania led to a big spatial change. In contrast to Sudan,
autochthonous structures and conventions have been
widely adopted. This can be especially well-observed
at the development of small building typologies which
are developed step-by-step, to avoid becoming an
uninhabitable shell and therefore becoming useless for
dwelling. The consensus oriented top-down approach
in Senegal led to the afforestation of many little abandoned areas nearby settlements instead of few large
ones for the creation of a carbon-credit account. This
approach allowed workers from settlements near the
afforestation spots to participate, and for the trees to
become the property of those settlements.
Due to the focus on Sub-Saharan Africa and the limitation on a small number of projects, the image drawn
by the work covers not a comprehensive view of the
spatial impact of development aid. Therefore further
research is needed to answer the questions that have
been left open or untouched by it. The projects investigated in this work pointed out that most of the problems they are dealing with have their roots in political
decissions, like the legal system that defines how property is owned rightfully and who is a squatter. As a result of this, a further research should primary concern
the design of a contemporary development aid framework that allows solving problems at itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s core, even if
that would mean to stop supporting technical solutions
to the developing countries and to start acting politically. If spatial change becomes necessary, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s design
has to be integrative to become broadly accepted and
maintainable by the local culture, because acceptance
is the best starting point for a self-sustainable change
of their environment. Therefore it has to respect the
technology standards, the available materials, and
techniques given by the place and culture. One of the
most important parts of the framework will be the draft
of a flexible and reliable relationship scheme between
the managing, the executing, and the affected party.
But as we have seen, this distinguishing is not really
up to date anymore: It brings big advantage to the development process if the affected party takes responsibility in the other parts (chapter III) or the execution is
done by locals (chapter III, IV). In particular at projects
that aim at the improvement of the living conditions of
the poorest, it is necessary to let them do as much as
possible by themselves, because manpower and local
knowledge is the major and often solely thing they can
contribute. Also the ever occurring process-slowing ob68

stacles of local lobyism needs to be solved to advance
projects before the driving momentum starts to slow
down.
Some of the analysed projects made clear that participating architects have to deal with huge challenges
if they want to create a successful design. They can
not simply reuse their high technologised designs, due
to the fact that it has to be built and maintained in a
culture where certain technical solutions will simply not
work, because they can either not be sufficiently implemented or maintained by the local people at a reasonable level of cost and effort. They simply canâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;t afford to
get a Western expert to fix the design every time it is
broken. Additionally further fundamental things separate designs taking place in Europe and Sub-Saharan
Africa: Firstly, a design placed in Europe can always
rely on a working infrastructure to plug itself into. Secondly, it is confronted with completely different climate
conditions than it is in Sub-Saharan Africa: It has to
deal with high temperature, drought, and heavy rain
fall that floods whole city quarters without relying on a
working infrastructure that brings the building constant
electricity and transports dirt and meteor water away.
Therefore big challenges are awaiting every architect
that wants to participate in sustainable design for development countries.

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of Mangrove Systems. A Lesson for and from the East African Region. South African Journal of
Botany, 2001 (67), pp. 383–389.

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Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Finance, Dar es Salaam and Office of Chief Government Statistician President’s Office, Finance, Economy and Development Planning, Zanzibar.

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All figures not mentioned below are edited or produced by the author of this work and therefore
belong to him. However, the figures may be used and edited by others if the author is mentioned
in publications.